Table lamps are the gift of our ancestors as they were popular in the nineteenth century and the essence of the same we can still feel in today's genre. The uniqueness of these reverse painted table lamps lie in the fact that the painting on these lamps gives the impression as if they are inscribed on the reverse side. They are generally handmade and are deemed as artifacts in themselves. They are exotically unique and are bit costly too if we compare them with other antiques.
The most popular among the types are 'The Pairpoint Apple Tree' with a value of ,000. These lamps often have designs of landscapes, all painted by hand inside the glass shade blank. This paint was then done onto the glass. The most famous table lamp among the reverse painted lamps was 'The Pairpoint Puffy' which was a very precious lamp with the flowers being puffed outwards.
Lamp End Tables
The most beautiful among today's reverse painted lamps I have seen is Parrish Reveries, elucidating the spirit of Parrish with the hand painted landscape shade in autumnal rich and violet lilac colors. Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966) was the man behind to give this style. However, the first person to originally create reverse painted table lamp was Philip Julius Handel who set up his company in Meriden, Connecticut in 1876. They were creating highly beautiful and quality and expensive table lamps. For next few years, they were very successful, however the great depression changed everything, and companies had to stop production completely in 1936 yet their created designs continued to leave the impression of exoticness and quality even centuries ahead. These lamps were much cheaper than the Tiffany lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany. The materials used at the base of these reverse painted lamps were zinc alloy, spelter with a bronze patina or finish. Some of these bases were also made of bronze. Their company name was marked at the bottom of the base with their markings in raised letters or just labeled. Sometimes these marking were placed just below the base or on many occasions at the top. Along with the reverse painted lamps, they were also making vases, humidor boxes and other decorative objects. Most of the large Handel lamp bases have wires with many sockets with the pull chains having small sized pull balls just at the end of the chain.
Reverse painted table lamps beauty lies in the beautiful landscape painting adorning the shade of the lamps, so why not make your life colorful while adorning these beautiful paintings.