A set of six brass and hurricane glass lamps.
Brass, glass.
Middle of 20th century.
h. 18,1 in. ; w. 5,5 in. ; d. 5,5 in.
A set of six brass and hurricane glass lamps.
The hurricane glass is a glass shade meant to be placed on a candle and prevent it from being extinguished inside a room by drafts, or outside by the wind. It was therefore very convenient to light up garden lounges before the widespread use of electricity, and as many things that were deemed convenient before the industrial revolution, it remained in use, but as a luxurious item.
Even though there are some lighting elements of this kind in Europe, and especially in Victorian England, the hurricane glass lantern seems to have been one of the first luxurious types of lighting that were properly American, and not simply derived or inspired by European lighting fixtures. Augustus Sherrill Whiton, the founder of the New York School of Interior Design, wrote, in 1944 :
With the beginning of the 19th century and the increase in wealth and luxury of the early republic, the lighting fixtures that were made in America were based on French Directoire and Empire designs and on the English, Adam, Sheraton, Hepplewhite forms. The large hurricane shade, made large enough to completely enclose a candlestick and protect it from drafts, was a local type of fixture. Glass candlesticks and lamps were made in the Wistar factory in New Jersey, and in Sandwich, Massachussetts.
Sources
August Sherrill Whiton, Elements of Interior Decoration, Chicago, 1944.
Frederic Hicks Jones, A Concise Dictionary of Interior Design, Los Altos, 1990.
