Lighting

Antique lighting can range from simple terracotta roman oil lamps or a pewter candlesticks to elaborate and impressive chandeliers.

In between come a whole range of different lighting forms depending on country of origin or their specific function. They encompass enamelled glass mosque lamps from Middle Eastern countries; European giltwood or ormolu wall brackets; figural torchères that hold lamps or the coloured glass creations from the likes of Daum and Gallé in Northern France to Tiffany’s distinctive American designs.

With the arrival of electricity, lighting gradually became more functional and simplified. Today lights by inter- or post-war Scandinavian or ‘50s and ‘60s Italian designers have acquired the status of design classics.


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Pilkington’s ceramics provide good starter for North Yorkshire auction

27 November 2023

A 43-lot private collection of Pilkington’s ceramics from Manchester opened Tennants’ (24/22% buyer’s premium) sale of 20th century design held in Leyburn on October 7.

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Interiors: Put on a road show

13 November 2023

The dealer ‘hub’ of Lillie Road is renowned among interior designers but now is the time to spread the word

Miner's lamp

Pick of the week: Biram’s safety lamp shines at auction

30 October 2023

Lot 57 at Sutton Hill Farm Country Auctions on October 21 comprised ‘2 framed paintings, signed J Cole, one other’, taking a hammer price of £8. Lot 59, a ‘vintage Sesame Street Big Bird piano toy’ (in working order) made it into double figures, at £14.

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All you need is light: a Beatles table lamp

23 October 2023

This kitschy Beatles table lamp discovered in a house clearance sold for an impressive £950 (estimate £100-150) on September 14.

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The web shop window: pair of Blue John lanterns

28 August 2023

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

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Braziliant Brecheret: a Modernist pioneer at auction

07 August 2023

Italian-born sculptor was a founding figure in the first wave of Modernism via São Paolo

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Paris sale features plenty of post-war material by currently popular blue-chip names

07 August 2023

A recent Design sale at Sotheby’s (26/20/13.9/plus 1% overhead buyer’s premium) in Paris had stacks of post-war material by renowned names such as the Lalannes and Charlotte Perriand but the Art Deco period also featured.

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Lachenal carries on family design tradition

17 July 2023

London-based French antiques dealer Dorian Caffot de Fawes offers furniture, pictures and other objects from 1920-70.

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Silverware takes to the Los Angeles saleroom stage

05 June 2023

Pictured here are examples of Georgian silverware coming up in two different auctions that are being staged in Los Angeles in June.

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Renowned candlestick back in the limelight at Stowmarket sale

08 May 2023

Estimated at £15,000-20,000, this 8½in (22cm) Elizabeth I or James I pewter bell-based candlestick sold to a private UK collector bidding online for £25,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) as part of the Chapman collection at Bishop & Miller in Stowmarket on April 27.

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Detective work sheds some light on a £75,000 chandelier

08 May 2023

Investigation by saleroom specialist pays off as Castle Howard connection helps a chandelier to impress

Regency bronze candlesticks

English candlesticks created with Egyptian style

13 March 2023

This pair of English Regency bronze candlesticks in Egyptian revival taste sold for £1800 at Laidlaw (20% buyer’s premium).

Giacometti chandelier

Giacometti chandelier bought in Marylebone antiques shop for £250 sells for £2.4m

01 March 2023

A chandelier made in the 1940s for the offices of cultural magazine Horizon, and later purchased by artist John Craxton, sold for a hammer price of £2.4m at Christie’s.

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Tiffany dragonfly lamp to delight

13 February 2023

Sotheby’s New York holds an online auction titled Design that runs from March 7-14.

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Chandelier shone in Pugin’s Gem

06 February 2023

This brass and iron ecclesiastic chandelier or corona lucis is by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-52), the most famous name in the Gothic Revival.

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Rectory sale rolls out wealth of English furniture

09 January 2023

Among a wealth of English furniture consigned from a Wiltshire country house the outstanding items were a George I japanned bureau-cabinet and a pair of George III carved giltwood girandoles.

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Socialite’s bedroom opened up

19 December 2022

Pieces that had decorated Paris home of a famous patron of the arts come to Fontainebleau auction

Gas lamp

Plea for art and antiques trade to help save London’s historic gas lamps

30 November 2022

The London Gasketeers, a group trying to preserve London’s historic gas lamps, has called on the art and antiques trade to help list at-risk examples.

Gas lamp

Antiques dealers’ campaign to save Westminster’s gas lamps continues as a third of lanterns remain at risk

24 November 2022

The London Gasketeers, a group trying to preserve central London’s Victorian gas lamps, welcomed a step by Westminster City Council to retain 174 of the lamps but concerns remain for the 94 still earmarked for conversion to LED.

Gas lamp

Antique dealers’ campaign to save Westminster’s gas lamps attracts wider support ahead of council’s consultation

12 October 2022

A campaign to save the Victorian gas lamps in Westminster has gained support from The Victorian Society, its president actor Griff Rhys Jones and the GMB Union.

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