Resurrecting a Gill
My online vintage lighting store.
The intrepid Cody brought to my attention to a 1930s Gill chandelier about 2 hours away.
The chandelier looked so very sad. My heart went out to it.
Obviously, I had no choice. I had to save it.
The poor dear. It seemed that the metal components had been spray-painted silver. And, the glass shade had silver paint smudges all over. Would the latter even come off?
The stem. Look how dirty the edge of the shade is. And the fluted column looked corroded. Was it? Or was that just corrosion to the silver spray paint?
Again, surface-level corrosion? Or deeply pitted corrosion?
I drove the almost 2 hours with these questions in mind. I had even dreamt about the questions!
Arriving at the house in Kansas City, I nervously placed the poor dear in my car. It was still not obvious if the chandelier could be properly restored.
Driving home almost 2 hours, the same question nagged at me.
Many hours later, I now have an answer. Wanna see?
And the answer? YES, the chandelier could be restored!!!!!!!!
Praise the Lord, yes!!!!!!!!
YES!!!!!!!! Amazingly, under the horrible silver paint was largely intact chrome-plating. Who spray paints chrome silver?
YES!!!!!!!! The molding of the shade is dazzling, and typical of Gill Glass.
YES!!!!!!!! Ross happy! So very happy!
My online vintage lighting store.
12 Comments
Leave a Comment
Your email address will NEVER be made public or shared, and you may use a screen name if you wish.
Ross! This is amazing!!
Yes! Who spray paints chrome silver??? Obviously a moron; an idiot!
I love it. Especially since so many lighting fixtures are brass it is such a delight to see chrome. Being able to clean it rather than have it replated to me is such a plus. It retains its history.
For terrible chrome there are places that can re-chrome or for that matter re-plate brass too. It’s just a matter of respect and love.
Right now I’m debating how far I want to go restoring my vintage O’Keefe and Merritt stove. I can send the griddle and top off to be re-chromed but I’m not sure how far I want to go to make the stove look “new”. Then it would be to re-enamel the burners and grates. Then the knobs. There is no end and if I don’t stop it will look “new” which I don’t really want. The top where the clock was is also missing. Do I really want to track down the missing part and perhaps reattach and get it working? I’m just not sure how far to go.
With a lighting fixture you obviously have to repair and rewire so that it works and is not a fire hazard. My stove is in perfect working order so my decisions are all cosmetic.
That really is beautiful. I love the chrome.
Oh hey, beautiful!
Wow…stunning!!
Wow! It sure looked pitted in the first pictures. How did you remove the silver spray from the chrome underneath? Are your plans to sell it or install it in Cross House?
O.T.–Verizon took weeks to get my internet back up after one of the summer storms so I missed tons of JMG posts. When did Anne Marie in Philadelpia die and of what? I always enjoyed her salty language.
Simply gorgeous! Did I miss – what yearish is this from? 🙂
That’s beautiful Ross, what an amazing job you did restoring the Gill chandelier.
Wow that is one gorgeous chandelier and an immaculate and amazing restoration!
Asking out of sheer ignorance:
Rather than faceted U drop crystals, wouldn’t clear, un-faceted tear drops have been the norm for this era?
I’ve never seen the catalog images for this stuff, so I really don’t know.
Hi, Cody!
The crystals I used exactly match the original Gill catalog image.
I’ve also sold this fixture many times over the years. When the crystals are in situ, they also exactly match.
I never tire of seeing these beautiful Gill Glass chandelier. So excited you were able to restore it to it’s true beauty. You’re amazing Ross!