I Sing the Bulb Electric

[infrogmation]

I've been a ranty froggy lately, so now I'll spew some opinionated random thoughts on a totally inconsequential and apolitical topic: decorative home light fixtures.

Inspired by this post by ernunnos:

"What's the thing that everyone oohs and aahs over in terms of housewares that strikes you as perverse at best?"

Chandeliers with little electric bulbs atop tubes that are supposed to look like candles.

I know that many people find them gorgeous and classy, but they've never particularly appealed to me. I figure, if you're going to have a candle chandelier, have candles; if you're going electric, don't try to make it look like something else.

If I understand the history of this development, actually they are electric lights in tubes that were developed for gasoliers that were supposed to look like candles, adding another layer of historical faux.

There were already many successful designs for making attractive electric light fixtures that weren't pseudo-candles by the late 19th century. It's not a an unsolvable problem to make something beautiful without the phony candles.

Well, I have one of these things in my music room (formerly the house's dining room); it was one of the nicer fixtures in place when I bought the house, though not original. (Originally the end of the 19th century houses in this neighborhood had combination gas-electric fixtures; my place still has two original converted to electric only, and I've installed a matching third one.) It's a brass one of a type mass produced from the 1910s through the early 1960s that many visitors compliment, but I've often thought of getting rid of it. I've thought of replacing it with a ceiling fan light fixture like in other rooms, but I havn't found one I like enough with the proper vintage look that will give off light to rival the chandelier.

Which brings up the next question:

"Is there something they haven't invented yet that you wish they would from the same category?"

A good ceiling fan/chandelier combination. Not just a ceiling fan with a light fixture, but with a real nice decorative multi-bulb fixture. That doesn't look like make-believe candles.

And finally, a song, via a tape in the Tulane Jazz Archive (tune: Turkey in the Straw):

I went to the city
To see all the sights
My fav'rite was
The e-lectric lights.
The man who made them
Knew what it was about:
He put 'em all in bottles so you couldn't blow 'em out.

Comments

[mshollie.livejournal.com]

I could never understand that, either. We have a chandelier just like that in the dining room, but it's so bloody ostentatious anyway that the electric candles are obscured by all the other stuff.

Hmmm...the most perverse houseware? Probably one of those "as seen on TV" gadgets.