A Miracle Light
My online vintage lighting store.
Recently, I found a vintage light in an antique store. I gasped when I saw it. It was sitting on the floor, kinda falling apart, but was obviously incredible.
Placing it in my car, I realized that the large bottom plate was damaged:
The center of the plate was broken out. I had the broken-off piece, but how to repair it?
This was a job for my friend JR at GKA Lighting. JR makes huge new lights for nightclubs and restaurants, and also restores huge lights for old movie theaters. Our businesses complement rather than compete.
The next day, Saturday, I packed up the damaged plate, with plans to ship the box on Monday.
Monday morning…a miracle happened.
This showed up on eBay.
My eyes bugged out. My heart seized up. My mouth let out a quick squeak.
The fixture is incredibly rare. I had never seen it before, which is really saying something considering the thousands of vintage lights I have purchased over the years.
But, the very part I needed, showed up three days later?
The odds of this are astronomical.
I made the seller an offer, and soon the piece arrived. Wanna see? Scroll way down…
ZOUNDS!
ZOUNDS!
THISTLES! COPPER!
Above the plate is a mica panel.
We are living in dangerous, dark times.
But…even now…miracles are happening.
My online vintage lighting store.
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Oh man, that is GORGEOUS! I wish I had a house to go with it… some day. Our old house is in our past – after 15 years of restoration, we decided to add kids into the mix and the two just didn’t really go together. But now that the kids are pretty much grown (last one will be off to college in a year) and retirement is around the corner, my husband has said another old house (hopefully a bit more fixed up already than the first one we bought) wouldn’t be out of the question! I want OUT of this 1999 box, and I want a place to hang a gorgeous light fixture like that!
Beauty!
Wow that is gorgeous and as a Scot I wonder if I could find a place for something with thistles in my Victorian tenement back in Glasgow!
Colin
I can ship to Glasgow, Colin!
Wow!
Wow. Beautiful. Little miracles just make my day — and will save us all.
Stunning fixture. Don’t throw away the broken piece. If it’s copper, it is very easy to fix. Copper can be brazed or tig welded. Easier still is to solder it as you would copper downspouts. If done from the top, the repair would not be seen.
Aaron, it’s cast-iron with some sort of copper plating.
And I will not discard it.
Cast iron is a tricky metal to join. It pretty much has to be brazed and to avoid the possibility of cracking, it really should be preheated in an oven, both of which is likely to ruin that beautiful finish.
Wow, gorgeous! And what are the chances of finding the right piece on Ebay or anywhere, yet there it was. Amazing.