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About Antique Lamps

Antique and vintage lamps span a broad spectrum, including well known-styles like Victorian and slag glass and leading names like Tiffany, Handel, and Aladdin. Values vary greatly and reproductions abound, so do your homework.

The earliest type of lamp, the oil lamp, was a simplistic vessel with an absorbent wick. These were mass-produced starting in the 19th century. Manufacturers typically made the metal base and burner and bought the glass from another manufacturer...

Between the 1840s and the early 1900s, during the Victorian era, oil lamps and candelabras coexisted with early electric lamps. In 1908, Aladdin Industries Inc. created the Aladdin lamp, an oil lamp so bright that no one was able to find another oil lamp that compared, despite Aladdin's offer of a thousand dollars if they could.

The biggest development in lamps toward the end of the 1800s was the growing popularity of ornate glass lampshades, often with floral imagery. Lamps started to become a decorative, rather than just functional, item. Slag glass (pressed glass with milky stripes), for example, became popular in England and America, and many lamp companies used it to create beautiful lamp shades.

Decorative table and floor lamps reached the height of their popularity in the U.S. in the first two decades of the 20th century, spurred by the success of Tiffany and its Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau competitors, like Handel.

Tiffany and others made bronze and gilt-bronze lamp bases, often simulating plants or tree trunks, and floral or other naturalistic art glass shades with colorful iridescent glass pieces leaded together. Thousands of Tiffany lamps were made, and they're highly collectible today. By the 1920s, many lamp designers had started to shift to Art Deco styles, characterized by angular lines and squared glass or paper shades. Also common were deco figural lamps with stems made to look like people.

Post WWII, mid-century lamps tended to be simpler (Eames), sillier (TV lamps) or groovier (lava lamps). Eames lamps were often made of metal and featured long, narrow, and sometimes wavy stems. Lamps with multiple bulbs and lamps with swiveling necks were also common. So-called TV lamps were also popular in the 1950s. Typically made of ceramic or plaster, these were backlit decorative sculptures created in the shape of animals, people, and plants.

Lava lamps, an icon of the 1960s and 70s, combined heated wax, chemicals, and dyed water to create lava-like imagery. Lava lamps were used more for decoration than for lighting.

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Interviews & Articles

An Interview With Antique Lamp Collector Dan Edminster

My grandparents were antique collectors all their lives, their whole house was furnished in antiques. They ha…  [more]

An Interview With 1950s TV Lamp Collector Mark Stevens

What got me interested in TV lamps?  I’ve always had an interest in the tackier artifacts of the 1950s and…  [more]

Burglars Horror

Some years ago a police commissioner in a large city offered the practical suggestion that one small electric…  [more]



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Neustadt Tiffany Collection

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This stunning gallery of 138 Tiffany lamps and lampshades, part of the Dr. Egon Neustadt Collection presented by th… [read review or visit site]

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Top eBay Auctions    (get weekly Lamps email)

Status       Display       How this works
Old Original Tiffany Studios New York No 319 Lily Lamp$2,324 Ends Sunday 8 bids 43 watchers
Handel Bronze Lamp Circa 1910$1,499 Ends Friday 1 bid 14 watchers
Tiffany Studios Favrile Lamp$1,225 Ends Monday 11 bids 47 watchers
Shakey's Original Antique Pool Table Hanging Lamp$1,100 Ends in 22 hours 1 bid 6 watchers
Jielde French Industrial 5 Arms Desk Floor Lamp $680.00 Ends Sunday 30 bids 50 watchers
Sandwich Glass White Cut To Amethyst Whale Oil Lamp$560.00 Ends Sunday 3 bids 14 watchers
Antique Bent Curved Carmel Slag Glass Table Parlor Lamp$560.00 Ends Saturday 6 bids 26 watchers
Old Antique Victorian Hanging Library Oil Lamp Complete$536.56 Ends Thursday 3 bids 29 watchers
Old Antique Amber Hobnail Oil Library Hanging Lamp$529.99 Ends Monday 8 bids 55 watchers
Kerosene Parlor Lamp Rare 1890 Pink Tennis Racket !!!!!$519.00 Ends in 22 hours 6 bids 24 watchers
Pink Opalescent 14 In Hanging Oil Lamp Shade$510.00 Ends Sunday 10 bids 42 watchers
20s Miller Gothic Art Nouveau Caramel Slag Antique Lamp$510.00 Ends Sunday 4 bids 17 watchers
Fabulous Art Deco "argilor" Paris French Perfume Lamp$502.00 Ends Thursday 21 bids 24 watchers
Antique Tiffany Studios Bronze Lamp Base $500.00 Ends Tuesday 11 bids 38 watchers
1880's Cranberry Opalescent Hobnail Library Lamp Shade$460.00 Ends Sunday 3 bids 48 watchers
Droog Design: 85 Lamps Chandelier Contemporary Lighting$430.00 Ends Monday 6 bids 26 watchers
Old Decorative Lamp, Very Pretty$400.00 Ends Sunday 2 bids 5 watchers
Old Decorative Lamp, Beautiful$400.00 Ends Sunday 1 bid 5 watchers
Aladdin Lamp B62 Short Lincoln Drape Ruby Crystal 1939$380.00 Ends Tuesday 12 bids 34 watchers
B&h Victorian Cast Iron Figural Griffin Piano Lamp$376.00 Ends Monday 6 bids 33 watchers
Antique Aladdin Alacite Oil Lamp~ Lincoln Drape Wow $370.99 Ends Monday 14 bids 34 watchers
20s Miller 12 Slag Panel Antique Lamp W Scenic Overlay$365.00 Ends Sunday 14 bids 24 watchers
Antique 1900's Arts And Crafts Reverse Painted Lamp$360.00 Ends Monday 18 bids 23 watchers
Victorian Kerosene Banquet Gwtw Lamp Ball Globe Shade$325.00 Ends Monday 2 bids 24 watchers
Tiffany Studios 7" Puka Shell Shade For Harp Lamp$311.00 Ends Sunday 8 bids 28 watchers
20s Rainaud Slag W Gothic Green Man Base Antique Lamp$309.00 Ends Sunday 3 bids 16 watchers
Victorian Cranberry Hobnail Glass Hanging Parlor Lamp$305.51 Ends Sunday 10 bids 52 watchers
French Paris Art Deco Table Lamp Bronze Shade Lady Old$305.00 Ends Sunday 9 bids 44 watchers
1900-19 Arts & Crafts Rembrandt Antique Mica Lamp$305.00 Ends Sunday 7 bids 15 watchers
Vintage Lamp - Handel # 3351 Artist Signed$304.99 Ends Sunday 5 bids 25 watchers
Rare Signed Quezal Set Of Four Glass Lamp Shades Luster$303.00 Ends Sunday 13 bids 30 watchers
Large Antique Victorian Handpainted Gwtw Floral Lamp$300.00 Ends Monday 5 bids 3 watchers
Blue Satin Art Glass Ftd Miniature Kerosene Oil Lamp $300.00 Ends Monday 1 bid 24 watchers
Antique Fancy B&h Oil Kerosene Banquet Lamp Marble Base$295.95 Ends Sunday 8 bids 25 watchers
Rare Signed Quezal Art Glass Lamp Shade Great Condition$282.00 Ends Sunday 16 bids 42 watchers
Very Rare Seattle Worlds Fair Motion Lamp$281.00 Ends in 3 hours 11 bids 46 watchers
Cranberry Hanging Victorian Lamp-antique-complete Buy it Now$280.00 Ends in 3 hours 7 bids 30 watchers
(2) Artemide Tolomeo Aluminum Table/desk Lamps..w/boxes$275.00 Ends Sunday 6 bids 48 watchers
Rare Pair Quezal Steuben Art Glass Lamp Snakeskin Scale$265.00 Ends Sunday 21 bids 51 watchers
Antique Oil Kerosene Lamp Etched W Birds Glass Shade$260.75 Ends Sunday 11 bids 26 watchers
1900-19 French Art Nouveau Desk Lamp W Quezal Shade$260.66 Ends Sunday 6 bids 40 watchers
Lamps: French Provincial Figurines. Man/woman $255.00 Ends Monday 6 bids 5 watchers
Magnificent Bradley & Hubbard 16 Panel Scenic Slag Lamp$250.99 Ends Saturday 3 bids 10 watchers
Rare 1939 New York Worlds Fair Lamp Trylon & Perisphere$250.00 Ends Monday 1 bid 22 watchers
Two Adlake Caboose Marker Lamps With Dual Brackets$250.00 Ends Friday 4 bids 15 watchers
1900-19 Bradley & Hubbard Caramel Slag Antique Lamp$250.00 Ends Sunday 7 bids 18 watchers
Antique Astral Solar Oil Lamp W/ Cut Shade Electrified$249.99 Ends Sunday 10 bids 25 watchers
Ingo Maurer Jimken Lamp****new In The Original Box****$233.33 Ends in 6 hours 8 bids 13 watchers
Ca 1909 No Melt Cast Aluminum Miners Oil Wick Cap Lamp$231.38 Ends Wednesday 7 bids 31 watchers
Tiki Lamp By Shag Limited Rapa Hu - Signed Card!$229.48 Ends Sunday 5 bids 32 watchers
Nernst Glower Lamp, Very Nice$228.05 Ends Monday 16 bids

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