|
Gone with the Wind Lamps are generally vases or parlor lamps with removable founts, along with a matching painted or embossed decoration on both the shade and lamp base. Many of the most beautiful designed lamps that were extremely elaborate and stylish were the ones used for movie set decorations in the movie, “Gone With the Wind,” which was how they got their name. In actuality, this antique Gone with the Wind lamp style originated in the Victorian and Art Nouveau periods.
Where Gone with the Wind Lamps Come From
Original antique gone with the wind lamps today bring around $1,500 each with their beautiful flowery round globes (known, as well, as Gone with the Wind lamp globes). Designed imitations bring approximately around $300 each. Victorian lighting collectors collect both scenic and floral artistic renderings of these historical kerosene oil lamps. Also called “parlor lamps,” these lamps were originally imported from Dresden, German. An antique Gone with the Wind lamp has a globe-like font, which is emphasized by painted artistic work supported with pierced gilt metal fittings and four paw feet, giving the lamps the look of quality and elegance it still has today. Art Nouveau Influence on the Gone with the Wind Lamp
The Art Nouveau style was a decorative-art movement which began in Western Europe, and from which the gone with the wind lamps originated. Known by many different names, the decorative arts used it quite extensively: furniture, jewelry, illustration and book design. The Art Nouveau style was very asymmetrical and ornamental, having the whiplash linearity that looked like twining plant tendrils. Our own Louis C. Tiffany became widely known for his Tiffany windows and lamps during this time. Many of the antique gone with the wind lamps designed around the middle of that century later took on an Art Nouveau style, meaning “new art”, which was popular during the 1890s in Europe and America. It was developed as a rebellion against the old, repetitious designs of lingering Victorian traditions and also the industrial revolution. It’s designs were flat patterns of twisting plant forms, along with elongated, organic forms and sinuous lines. The S-curve was the movement’s signature motif. Some of the designs of this parlor lamp were: the Pittsburgh Gargoyle; the stencil transfer Elk Scenic Scene; the Pittsburgh Mermaid and Seagulls; the Sheiks and Camels; Joan of Arc; and the Lady and the Swans. True antique Gone with the Wind lamps are works of art, and are also called “decorative lamps.” |
Lamps and Shades