Learning About Victorian And Vintage Glass Lamp Shades
The canonical Victorian lamp shade consists of a metal wire frame that serves as a scaffold for tautly stretched fabric and a fringe or beaded skirt that hangs from the bottom of the shade. This style emerged only after the late 1800s when distribution systems for electricity became common in cities. Prior to this age, home lighting, if any, ran off utility gas. As gas-lighting involves the production of a flame, a fabric shade was out of the question.
Instead, glass lamp shades were used to surround and protect the interior flame from drafts that may otherwise extinguish or displace the flame in a dangerous way. But with the advent of electrical lighting, there was no longer any need for glass shades, and many homes took on the Victorian fabric and beaded shades instead. However, glass lamp shades remained in use for their peculiar aesthetic qualities.
The naming of Victorian lamp shades maybe somewhat misleading and historically inaccurate. The period of the Victorian age started when Queen Victorian ascended the throne in 1837 and ended in 1901. Because electricity was invented only about 20 years before this, it is somewhat puzzling to the average laymen that Victorian shades came to be called that.
The Victorian lamp shade may have a simple construction, but the varieties in the wire frame scaffold as well as the varieties in the design of the fabric in terms of its patterning, color and adornments vary greatly. The traditional fringe also had a large number of presentations, including beading or other types of fringe adornments. Often people compare the Victorian shade with other glass lamp shades.
For example, the type of glass light shades that is widely known as Tiffany is closely connected to the illustrious jewelry store that is famed all over the world. The creator, Louis Comfort Tiffany, lived in the early 1900s, forging novel art and innovating in the industry of home decorating. There are two main reasons why Tiffany indulged in lamp shades. The first is that he had classical training in the arts and understood the construction of stained glass windows in churches. The second is that he was by trade also an interior designer who thought up novel home decor ideas. The Tiffany lamp shades are made up of panes of stained glass framed in metal, the construction of which mirrors church windows. When lit, they became brilliant scenes drawn from natural scenes such as animals, insects and landscapes.
Shades can be found in a plethora of sizes and shapes. The shapes have interesting names, such as hurricane glass shades and gas lamp shades. The hurricane shade is exemplified by a curvy pear design that bulges in the waist before tapering up into a pinched-off neck. Simply by its distinctive profile it is an extremely stylish piece of lighting. The classical gas light shade comes to us from the Victorian age of the United Kingdom. When utility gas lighting first became widespread, it helped fuel commerce-related revolution to the European continent.
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