Oil Lamps

Collectors often focus on a lamp's chimney or shade. Earlier chimneys were hand blown, free-form, and these limited-production chimneys with peddle tops and frothed or etched designs are more scarce and in demand than later machine-made examples. Typically oil lamp manufacturers made the metal parts (the base and burner) and bought the glass elsewhere. Holmes Booth and Haydens, for example, would buy glass shades from companies like Fostoria or Consolidated.

Shades were made with a wide variety of materials. There were the plain opal shades made with milk glass, which was utilitarian and inexpensive. There was case glass, really two different layers of glass with the inside white to reflect more light and the outside colored (the green and white combination is quite common). There were art glass shades: satin glass, amberina, cranberry, and mother of pearl. They were more expensive back then and command high prices today.