I have been restoring vintage lights since I was a teenager in the mid-1970s. An Interstate highway was being rammed through the city where I lived, and I ran (steps ahead of the bulldozers, and with my shag haircut flying) from one incredible building to another, and from one incredible house to another, and salvaged everything I could.
My poor, bewildered parents. Their garage was soon chock-a-block with what I thought were treasures beyond compare. But which they thought was just useless flotsam. I did though once overhear my mom say: “Well, at least he’s not out doing drugs.”
However, when all their boring lights were systematically replaced with the most stunning lights they had ever seen – and all for free, rewired, and restored – they soon had second thoughts about the flotsam. (I paid for new parts by mowing lawns!)
Fast forward many decades.
One day I realized I had a pile of old lights rusting away in my basement. I hauled a few out, restored them (bringing back many old memories), and listed them on eBay.
At the time I had no idea, not a clue, that I had just radically changed my life.
Within months my life was unrecognizable, and I was working full time restoring vintage lighting and selling the fixtures across America.
My new e-commerce website is now online. Whoee! Please feel free to shop and purchase here:
My blog post are below.
Patience. Rewarded.
My online vintage lighting store. Years and years ago, I purchased a 1930s chandelier online. It arrived with one smashed glass shade. Sigh. Almost daily, I looked through new shade listings on eBay to find a matching shade. And several years later I found one. When it arrived…it was not quite the right color. Several…
Continue ReadingA Revived Moe Bridges
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingBefore. After.
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingA Unique Rarity
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingA Lightolier Dazzler
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingBefore. After.
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingBefore. After.
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingA Historical Curiosity
My online vintage lighting store. Large lighting manufactures would periodically sell off older stock. So, in 1952, Company X would sell off all its old stock from the 1930s or early 1940s. Smaller lighting companies would then buy this stock. Sometimes they would only put on a new label. Sometimes they would combine parts from…
Continue ReadingA Wheel-Cut Beauty
My online vintage lighting store. The fixture was rewired with gold plastic wire about twenty years ago. Before shipping, I will replace the plastic wire with cloth-covered wire which the fixture would have had originally. This is a normal practice for me as buyers often want the length changed. If I have…
Continue ReadingA Sweet Early Electric Pendant
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingLightolier Prettiness
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingA Pink Surprise
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingA Silvery Set
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingAn Aldersyde
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue Reading1920s Lovelies
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingA Thrice of Sheridons
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingA Curvaceous Reminder
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingBefore. After.
My online vintage lighting store. For all these years I had assumed that the fixture was gold and the silver base was a later bad spray job. But it developed that most…
Continue ReadingA Moe-Bridges Set
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingColorful Moes
My online vintage lighting store. The fixture was created by Moe Light in the late 1930s and was sold through to the 1950s. The shades came in five colors. I particularly like the distinctive ceiling mounts. Only recently did I purchase the mounts, which I did because I had the four shades in…
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