50s chalkware figurine lamp and shade

Ms Atomic chose the shape, size, colors, and pattern to go with her cool pair of vintage chalk-ware figurine lamps. The main tier is black, and the top and bottom tiers are pink. The pattern is a custom gold glitter application.

1950s Lamp with Fiberglass

Shade

Atomic 2-tier lampshade, custom-made for vintage 1950s lamp base:
color: black
pattern: gold waves
(not a customer photo, but it goes with the chalkware lamps)

This 1950s ceramic lamp base with custom-made fiberglass lampshade illustrates one of the keys to properly fitting a shade to a base. Most table lamps have a neck, or transition piece, between the top of the base and the bottom of the lamp hardware (usually the harp or socket). Depending on the size and style of the lamp, lamp necks can range from 1/2″ to 6″ or taller. They are usually made of brass, but vintage lamps often have tapered wooden necks. The function of the neck is to provide a landing spot for the bottom of the shade, so that the shade doesn’t sit so low that it covers up the base, nor sit too high, revealing the lamp hardware. You usually want the lampshade to fall somewhere in the middle of the neck. This 1950s lamp has a 1/2″ neck, which makes targeting the bottom of the lampshade on the neck a little tight. We nailed it. The atomic fiberglass lampshade sits at the perfect height, high enough to show all of the ceramic lamp base, but not so high that the lamp socket is exposed.

1950s exotica

Few things evoke the 1950s as much as the “exotic” chalk-ware lamps made by Reglor and Continental. The chalk-ware bases are fragile, and are often found chipped or the painted surface is damaged. However, they can be restored with just a little bit of patience. Meteor Lights can customize shades for these lamps to your color and pattern specifications. For this one, the customer chose the top tier for the matching accent color, and went with a neutral color on the main tier. Putting the accent color on the furthest tier is a little more subtle than making the main tier match. Putting the pattern on the main tier accents the motion of the figurine

We’re so old, this photo was scanned in from a faded Polaroid! ;-p
From our old shared shop at 18th and Capp around the turn of the millennium…

We think these dancing figurine chalkware lamps were made by Continental Lamp Co. (but they may have been made by Reglor — let us know if you have any information). Our customer brought the lamps in so that we could match the colors on the replica shades to the lamp bases. It’s hard to tell in this faded old Polaroid snap, but we nailed it. The setting was in our old shop on 18th & Capp in the Mission that we shared with vintage gals Interior Salvation back in the day. The point is, in addition to our many standard colors, we can match nearly any other color, whether by fabric swatch, paint chip, or Pantone number (with the caveat that textured, translucent fiberglass has inherent light transmission differences from cloth or paper).