Art Deco Revere "Masque" Lamps

Here are a pair of chrome, Art Deco lamps in my collection. These iconic, Machine Age lamps are known as the "MASQUE" lamps, and they were most likely designed by Helen Dryden for the the Revere Copper and Brass Company, of Rome, NY. Helen Dryden was one of the most famous female industrial designers of the time. The design could have been inspired by the art tribal style of Amedeo Modigliani.

They appear in the Revere "Gifts Brochure" catalog of 1937 (#126) with the following description:

"Discreetness is a feature of this engaging modern bedside reading lamp. It shades the light from the sleeper while reflecting good light in the direction of the reader. An excellent hall lamp, distinctly smart, in polished chromium over brass."

Although they are supposed to be reading lamps, I believe they are best used as mood lighting or vanity lamps. To function as bedside lamps as described above, your spouse (most certainly) would have to be sleeping in a different bed...anything else in the boudoir at that time would have been scandalous!

Because of the reflective shine of the chrome, they are difficult to photograph, but the chrome faces have incised lines in them that depict feminine features.