victorian lamps

Most people relate Gone With The Wind lamps as a Victorian style glass lamp with hand-painted floral designs. This is not necessarily the case though.

The Victorian era was the heyday of etched glass. Acid etching (that was actually referred to as embossing by the tradesmen that made this type of glass) was actually developed by a Swedish chemist back in 1771 but became popular in the late 1800′s. This was the original method used by early craftsmen. The problem was that the process used hydrofluoric acid which was very dangerous.

As techniques were developed over time, wheel engraving became more prominent. It was first introduced during the 1850s in this country but had been around for a long time before that. Today most glass is etched or engraved. Both are quite similar but if you take a closer look at engraved glass you’ll find that the quality is not as good as etched. Engraved glass is usually done using a rotary tool to create the design. Etched glass is produced mostly by hand, one piece at a time. Another popular way of etching glass is the utilization of lasers. It’s faster to create designs this way.

When you look at etched or engraved glass they will look to be of similar quality. [click to continue…]

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Well, if you can love a Victorian lamp, you’ll love what I’ve found.

It seems that in the 1800′s as Great Britain grew and prospered a new middle class of wealthy industrialists was born. With that came the money from their factory production to purchase beautiful homes and finer furniture to fill them.

During this time period many consumer goods were being mass produced in factories. Gone was the time where everything was made by hand and in came a larger variety of goods to supply the growing demand. Regency style furniture fell from grace and was replaced by the heavier, more robust furniture of the victorian era.

Hence we have the classic Victorian lamp. With their beautiful and ornate bases and cut glass shades these lamps were and are today a great accent piece for any room in the house. We’ve got a miniature one in the kitchen which is used as a night light and a swag lamp in the dining room. Now, maybe I’m a little more eclectic in my styles but I think a Vintage lamp like these go with about anything. And yes, they are also called Tiffany lamps but that’s mainly because one of the best know manufacturers is Tiffany.

The nice thing about these lamps is they come in every shape and size imaginable as table lamps, floor lamps and swag lamps. Here’s just a few of the lamps I found:

Victorian Victorian Petite Ivory and Green Tiffany Style Table Lamp