EMPS: Lamps of the Museum of the Weird, Revisited

I knew I'd done photo shoots before that involved the Museum of the Weird's collection of mostly midcentury modern lamps, so I did a search just now after editing my new photos for Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #87: Lamps. Guess what!  My previous lamp-centric entry was for John Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot way back on January 30, 2007. For that entry, I was able to get some nice shots of most of the same lamps I photographed today. In fact they're superior, because back then, these lamps weren't dusty and inaccessible behind boxes in the front room.


From 2007: the most extreme of our vintage lamps.

Let's start with two of the 2007 photos. This is the most obviously vintage and busy-looking lamp we have. The pink and black ceramic base with gold leaf "crackle" is interesting enough on its own, but the two tier turquoise and brown patterned lampshade is the real star. The lamp and the shade clearly do not go with each other, but that's part of the lamp's charm.


from 2007: vintage rattan style lamps in the den

These two vintage hanging lamps looked so ugly when John brought them home sometime in the 1990s that I was highly dubious about the purchase. But once he cleaned and hung them and turned them on, he was vindicated. I love these now - and John is thinking about replacing them!


Our "rocket" lamp and a classic blue ceramic lamp, obscured by dust

Never mind the dust on the vintage blue lamp; have a look at the tall lamp beside it. This is a classic fifties design. I have no idea who the designer was or what this style of lamp is officially called, but I like to think of it is a "rocket" lamp because of the tall silo shape and the wooden supports at the base. Love it.


Our "Arizona" lamp

I've shown you this lamp a few times, I think, and I still don't know much about it. We got it at a yard or estate sale. It's very much a "rustic" Western style. I've never quite figured out what that wooden base is made out of.



And finally, here's the only lamp in the house, more or less, that is less than forty years old. John bought it in the late 1980s, I think. It's sort of a craft project, a clear, hollow lamp base, which one can fill with colored sand or art or seashells or, in our case, Happy Meal toys. The lampshade on this is uninteresting, so I won't bother to show you the whole lamp this time. But I did clean the lamp base just now so you can get a good look at the contents. The yellow tint here is caused by the light bulb shining above.

I could show you the salmon, turquoise and white pole lamp, or my sort-of-mod yellow lamp that shorted out several months ago, or my vintage desk lamp, but let's stop here. Don't want to be late this week with my post!  Nor can I really tell you which of these lamps is my favorite. Truth is, I'm very fond of all of them.

Karen