A LITTLE LAMPSHADE HISTORY

Decorative lampshades have been a part of our history since the 1800's, with an emphasis on the romantic and very decorative cloth shades between the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Miller, Sherwoods, and companies such as these had some of the most beautiful cloth shades imaginable, unfortunately, while the glass shades sold by these companies are still relatively easy to find, the cloth shades are virtually impossible. The Japanese, animal, floral, beaded, fringed, pleated and lace styles seemed to dominate the homes of these time periods. The more ornate the better. The 1920's and 30's seemed to rule with the Art Neuvau and Deco styles of companies such as Handel, Lightolier, Crucet. etc.. the emphasis during this time seemed to be more in the Tiffany and glass shades but there were still plenty of beautiful cloth shades to be found. From the 40's into the 60's Aladdin was a very popular lamp company, while most of their shades were a "paper plastic" they did have some nice cloth. Times had begun to change and the exquisitely ornate lampshades seemed to go out and the simple, much cheaper and easier to supply plastic and paper shades were in. All of these companies (and so many not mentioned) produced fantastically beautiful lamp bases, from floor lamps, to table lamps, to bedroom, wall, and miniature lamps, porcelain, glass, onyx, jade, alabaster, and pressed metals all of which are easily found today. One wonderful source for finding these is Ebay and Yahoo auctions. If you have an old base and you really want to dress it up, a beautiful hand sewn cloth shade is just the answer! Please take a look at some of the examples of period lighting I have scanned from old catalogs and books. 

We also offer the beautiful "Sugar Beaded" lampshades. Getting a picture that can show the beauty of these lampshades is not easy, but I've done my best!