On The Hunt For The Lost Gas Sconces. PART 5
Finding early 1890s gas/electric chandeliers and sconces for the Cross House will be a monumental, daunting task, requiring many years (decades?), and also requiring a vast fortune. Yes, I play the lottery weekly.
Another monumental task will be finding period-correct glass shades for all the lights. I grow weak at the very thought.
Last year I purchased a number of fixtures which I later learned were more 1904 than 1894. And all were electric rather than gas/electric. As such, I have been restoring these, and listing them for sale. Most need shades, and the simple fixtures seem to require simple shades rather than the more elaborate shades seen in the early 1890s.
While going through old lighting catalogs I noticed that a number of post-1900 fixtures had plain white shades with rippled edges.
I found such a set online, but they looked new to me. I could not explain why, as I know so little about pre-1920 fixtures and shades.
The solution? I emailed Bo Sullivan! He graciously responded, and I thought I would create a post about what I learned, and included Bo’s observations in quotes, below.
NOTE
I do not mean to suggest that vintage shades all have ruffled edges. Shades from the Victorian-era come in all shapes and styles.
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I read this post, and then shortly later I see this.
Now you’ve got me wondering if they’re new, if they’re old, how old is the fixture itself? Makes me wish it was flea market/garage sale season!
The shades, as you can see, are new junk.
The fixture is circa-1905. It has been altered, and is missing pieces.
Ross, have you considered hunting down a pair or two of gas/electric sconces that use those cool glass candle shades for the gas component, instead of the more traditional 3 or 4 inch fitter type? If you did that, you could actually wire both for electric, but get the look of gas, if you snaked a GY6.35 or a G4 base flicker bulb and socket up inside the candle shade along the gas spindle. I pretty recently tried this as an experiment with a fabulous pair of gas/electric sconces I stole for next to nothing on eBay, and it turned out great! This might save you some money in trying to find 10,000 of the same shade for every sconce, as there are only very few variaties of gas/candle shades out there, so if you were to go with plain white ones,they would go with almost any shade you decided to use for the downward facing electric bulb.
My beauties.
I’m in love with them.
i’ll have to send some pix of the shades i have. i have about 20 of those thin glass with various patterns. some i collected over the years as i’ve always been fascinated by great glass – lighting and stained and about 10 or more all came out of a house the organization i do landscaping bought that was built in 1840 but much of it stopped at around 1900 so many hanging lights with those beautiful glass shades
ps – i visited your lighting page and my prices are a LOT less than yours.