Vintage and Antique Lamps
Space Oddity: David Bowie's Secret Obsession With '80s Memphis Design
By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — Remembering David Bowie, most people rightfully think of his genre-defying music and androgynous, futuristic fashion sense. But Memphis-Milano furniture? Though Bowie described his infatuation with Memphis design—and the work of founder Ettore Sottsass in particular—in the pages of “V Magazine” in 2002, most fans weren't aware of Bowie's insatiable appetite for the wild postmodern furniture. Only now is the breadth of his personal collection finally visible, as more than 100 objects go up...
Let There Be Light Bulbs: How Incandescents Became the Icons of Innovation
By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — From the neon tubes of theater marquees to your desk lamp at work, from the million-watt glare of sports stadiums to the nightlight faintly glowing in your child’s bedroom, it’s impossible to imagine the modern world without artificial lighting. More than a century after the widespread adoption of electricity, it's clear that our lust for light bulbs brought us into the future: The desire for incandescent lighting resulted in the creation of America’s electric grid, which improved...
Tiffany Lamp Appraiser Arlie Sulka: An Interview with Collectors Weekly
By Maribeth Keane and Brad Quinn — When I was an art history major in college, there were very few programs that had a concentration in the decorative arts. So when I graduated, I thought I’d be working with paintings, sculpture, and prints.In 1979, when I was working at Plaza Auction Galleries, a small auction house in New York, I met Lillian Nassau, and she asked me to work for her. I’ve learned almost everything I know on the job. I ended up in the Art Nouveau department at Plaza because that’s where the opening was. I...
Burglars Horror
By Naomi Waugh — Some years ago a police commissioner in a large city offered the practical suggestion that one small electric light bulb left on while the family was out for the evening was one of the best forms of burglar insurance that any householder could have. The supposition was, of course, that the average marauder would think twice before trying to make informal entry into a house lighted even dimly, since it implied the presence of some one capable of raising an outcry. However, this...
Tacky Treasures: TV Lamps of the 1950s
By Maribeth Keane — I’ve always had an interest in the tackier artifacts of the 1950s and '60s. The cheesy stuff, the kitsch. Old B movies, monster and sci-fi movies, the stuff you can poke fun at a little bit. When I was growing up, we didn't have TV lamps around our house. But there was a book called "Turned On: Decorative Lamps of the 50s" written by Leland and Crystal Payton in 1989, about different kinds of lamps from the 1950s. There were so many in that book that were really tacky. I just remember...
Antique Oil Lamps and Chimneys
By Maribeth Keane — My grandparents were antique collectors all their lives, their whole house was furnished in antiques. They had a lot of oil lamps and I suppose that’s where I got my first interest. I’ve always had more of an interest in the glass lampshades than the lamps but it kind of just evolved into lamp collecting instead of glass, and not pattern glass per say, just colored glass. I started out collecting miniature lamps and built up a collection of maybe forty, nothing high end, just mid range...