Vintage French glitter lamp

Comment

Comment by Erin on March 4, 2012 at 9:52pm

I'm still sad. :( Good vintage glitter is hard to come by. 

Comment by WeeboTech on March 4, 2012 at 7:51pm

The fluid could have been thrown off balance. I believe these had some pretty caustic chemicals in them. 

They were removed from production for a reason. They are highly reactive. 

Comment by Erin on March 4, 2012 at 7:47pm

I did top off with some other (what I thought was) identical fluid. It's been sitting in cool basement for months, not running. So sad. This can't be repaired either. 

Comment by WeeboTech on March 4, 2012 at 7:36pm

I dunno what causes the glitter to dissolve. I've only seen it occur on open or leaking lamps or the ones with colored glitter. 

Comment by Erin on March 4, 2012 at 7:04pm

I went to check on this lamp today, and as I was moving it, I noticed the glitter is "eaten" and 50% transparent now. I am so heartbroken. :( What causes this to happen after 30 years?! I did top off with some glitter from an identical lamp from the same era, so I'm not sure if that was the cause or not. Either way, sad panda over here. 

Comment by Erin on March 6, 2011 at 6:57pm

I finally topped off the fluid on this one and it's even better. ;)

Comment by WeeboTech on March 6, 2011 at 4:31pm

I love these so much! They flow in the coolest circular pattern

Comment by Erin on October 21, 2010 at 8:15pm

Thanks Jonas. I always appreciate your help. :)

Comment by Jonas Clark-Elliott on October 21, 2010 at 12:29am

If your adapter converts to 220v., buy 15w. If it's just a prong adapter and the lamp runs on US current (110v.) buy 30w. and it'll run at approximately 15w. or so.

I haven't examined a French oval lamp yet, so I'm not sure how they compare quality-wise to a Lava Continental. I have a Lava Continental and a Mystique, and my oval French 'window' lamp (a solid steel oval column with oval windows in the wide sides) and it's a bit sturdier than the Continental, with a much nicer metal finish. Eventually I will have a French oval like yours, though converted to lava - it's coming in a trade.

Callisto, I'll see if I can email you some photos. I'm planning on making a collage of French lamp photos to show the endless variety. I've seen round, oval, lozenge, square, rectangle, trapezoid shapes, in bases/surrounds of polished, brushed, textured and/or painted steel, aluminum, brass, ceramic, plastic, wood, stone, marble, granite and others. Oddly, French lamps lack in color; red, orange and amber are most common, followed by silver with colored stripes under the bottle, and I've seen one purple. You'll also see a fair few with long, thin 'strip' or 'shred' glitters - one of mine is an oval column of thick ceramic with two oval windows, glazed in a patchy finish that looks like moss and pond scum, with silver strip glitters and four colors under the bottle.

Comment by Erin on October 19, 2010 at 7:19pm

Ooooh, I see them now! I don't know how I missed that before.

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