Stuff We're Working On

Good Monday morning to you.

Long story short. Several weeks ago I found an interesting lamp on ebay. It had only one picture, and only a two word headline. It looked like this:    

The ad read:                  RAM LAMP         and that was it.

It just seemed so mysterious, so interesting, I had to do something. So I bought it. Find out more inside.




Seven days later. It arrived. I was pretty sure this was going to be a TV lamp, and that the striped material was fiberglass, but that was about it. I assume I was correct on the TV lamp part, and the shade is what I call "skin fiberglass". It looked like this when I got it.

Drop cloth? We don't need no stinkin' drop cloths.

A quick evaluation showed that this lamp had gotten a little to close to something else that was being painted white. A big ol' gob of paint on the shade and cord just screams "I don't care anymore".  Well, we care and the paint on the shade will be the first thing to be removed.

The animal is ever so mildly pitted, but it'll clean up pretty well. The other side isn't pitted at all.

Based on the shape of the horns (antlers?) I would think this is an Ibex. But it just doesn't seem to have the body of a goat. The body strikes me as something more Impala like. You know, something related to a deer. But whatever it is it is highly stylized and we may never know what the animal was that inspired this big ol' chunk of brass.

Once again - excuse the background clutter. This is our project area. The fiberglass shade wraps around three sides and is in really nice shape. The lacing is going to have to be replaced.

Pretty simple when you see the whole thing.

The base might have been dipped in copper during manufacturer.

I think this is an example of a very early TV lamp. It could either be just an inexpensive one, or it might be older than the elaborate ceramic ones that we see so often. Any of you TV lamp experts have an opinion?

Restoration of this piece is going to be no big deal. Clean the shade, replace the lacing, repaint the base and the shade frame, polish the animal on the front, replace the socket and clean the original electrical cord. A couple of hours work and this baby will last another five decades.

Of course it goes on a shelf awaiting restoration with dozens of other jobs ahead of it so it may be July or August before you see the "after" pictures.