Reproduction Table Lamps from the Ming Dynasty Period

The Antique and Vintage Table Lamp Co have just added a new range of decorative reproduction table lamps to our collection.

Our company, well known for an extensive range of antique lighting, i.e., table lamps at least 100 years old, is now expanding our range to add contemporary porcelain lamps in antique style, thus continuing a living tradition. By example, China is well represented, with its unique one thousand year history of porcelain production and multitude of shapes and styles to draw from. Some of the decorations included were first created during the Ming dynasty, circa 1450.

The lamps pictured were reproduced to commemorate the most expensive vase ever sold. This original Ming vase was purchased in May 2006 by American, Steve Wynn for US$10,200,000, who then donated it to the Macau museum!

The Antique and Vintage Table Lamp Co believe that the essence of a room is in balanced and effective lighting. The true value of any scheme will not be realised if this important element is overlooked. Choosing good table lamps will make a substantial contribution to correct this problem and will certainly add to the pleasure of home life. Our new range offers a choice of alternative reproduction lamp styles that compliment all interiors from traditional to contemporary.

© The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co 2008

Japanese Imari table lamps

It was the Dutch East India Company who, in 1650 opened the doors of Europe to the export of Japanese porcelain. Most of this early export porcelain was decorated as blue and white, much favored by the Dutch and still widely collected in the Netherlands today.

The Japanese Emperor had granted the Dutch a concessional trading port and factory to meet the growing demand for Japanese ceramics. These export kilns were situated at Arita in Japan's Hizen province. Not far from Arita was the great trading port of Imari. All export to the West left Japan through this port and it was from this port that the famous Japanese Imari porcelain takes its name. This relationship is quite often missed, leading to much Japanese porcelain being attributed to "The Imari" factory. As the export trade increased, the demand for new shapes and colours grew, leading to the bright "Imari” patterns that are so distinctively recognized today.

These patterns, were in fact, derived from the sometimes identical patterns found in Japanese textiles and brocade, the coloured palette of enamels selected by the porcelain decorators in imitation of the silks chosen by the textile makers. A standard range of colours make up the traditional palette of Imari decoration. A rich cobalt blue combines with a deep iron red to produce the basic colours. These two colours can then be embellished with pale blue, yellow, aubergine, greens and black. These brightly coloured Imari porcelains were much favored by Europeans of the 18th and 19th centuries with their bright brocade like colours cheering up the long dark days of winter.

The Antique and Vintage Table Lamp Co currently has a fine collection of 19th century, Japanese Imari table lamps. From small accent lamps to Japanese Art Deco, to Kutani and Arita Imari and large Imari lamps in cobalt blue and iron red. Carefully placed quality table lamps can "make" a room with their ability to produce a pleasant level of mood lighting. A beautiful big pair of Imari lamps, one either end of a sofa, the bright enamel palette aglow with down light are still as fresh as new, even after 100 years plus.

Antique Table Lamps in Blue and White

Chinese blue and white porcelain has always been a favorite with collectors, but we need to go to the long history of China to find the beginning of blue and white’s popularity.

It was as early as the 9^th century when the first or, prototype blue and white was fired during the Tang dynasty. But we need to fast forward to the early 14^th century when the production of fine translucent blue and white porcelain began at the Imperial kilns at Jingdezhen. Jingdezhen was sometimes known as the porcelain capital of China, although at this time and for the following 300 years, it in fact was the porcelain capital of the world, as it was not until the early 18^th century that porcelain began to be experimentally made in Saxony.

It was Persia which originally supplied the “Persian blue” to the Chinese porcelain makers; it was, of course, cobalt oxide which put the blue in blue and white! Cobalt was one of the valuable commodities traded along the famous Silk Road and was of such importance to the Chinese that it was traded for bolts of pure silk.

The great European love affair with Chinese blue and white was started by the Portuguese in the 16^th century. It was eventually taken over by the Dutch who were the great shippers of Chinese ceramics to the West. The love affair still retains its passion with blue and white still as popular as ever.

Interior lighting is a most important element in decoration and can influence the “mood” of a room in a variety of ways, by example, soft romantic lighting.

Table lamps offer “that something extra” providing a refined and finished look to an interior. Blue and white with its bright, cobalt blue and bright white always keeps its fresh, clean look. A blue and white room is a sight to behold and how better lit than with blue and white lamps.

The Antique and Vintage Table Lamp Co currently have a choice range of antique, Chinese, blue and white table lamps as single lamps or pairs.

You are invited to visit their web site at www.antiquelampshop.com

© The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co 2008

Silk Lampshades for Antique Lamps

Along with so many traditional arts and crafts, the art of lampshade making has almost slipped away and just like a custom made garment, a quality, antique, table lamp calls for a lampshade of the same standing.

In the demanding world of high end interior design, a lampshade must be fitted proportionally and exactly as an inch or two the wrong way can make or break a look. Carefully measured, hand made work guarantees the harmonious marriage between lamp base and shade.

Lampshades can be made in many materials with silk being the fabric of choice. For the ultimate in luxury furnishings, silk can also be used to line a shade ensuring a professional and polished finish. This sumptuous textile is available in an almost endless array of colours and is the last word in elegance and refinement.

The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co provide a complete shade design service with every detail discussed, from the choice of finial down to the colour of the frame wire.

A full range of shade styles are available in any shape. Soft or bonded, knife, box or diamond pleated, ruffling effects or for something really spectacular, a double tiered shade to show off an exquisite oriental lamp. The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co has a reputation for striking original designs specifically tailored to their one-of-a-kind table lamps.

The art of hand stitched lampshade making is alive and well at The Antique and Vintage Table Lamp Co!

You are invited to visit their web site at www.antiquelampshop.com

© The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co 2008

An Outstanding Japanese Imari Lamp

In 1650, The Dutch East India Company, opened the doors of Europe to the export of Japanese porcelain. Most of this early export porcelain was decorated as blue and white, much favored by the Dutch and still widely collected in the Netherlands today.

The Japanese Emperor had granted the Dutch a concessional trading port and factory to meet the growing demand for Japanese ceramics. These export kilns were situated at Arita in Japan's Hizen province. Not far from Arita was the great trading port of Imari. All export to the West left Japan through this port and it was from here that the famous Japanese Imari porcelain takes its name. This relationship is quite often missed, leading to much Japanese porcelain being attributed to "The Imari" factory.

As the export trade increased, the demand for new shapes and colours grew, leading to the bright Imari patterns that are so distinctively recognised today. These patterns were in fact, derived from the sometimes identical patterns found in Japanese textiles and brocade.

A standard range of colours make up the traditional palette of Imari decoration. Rich cobalt blue combines with deep iron red to produce the basic colours. These colours can then be embellished with pale blue, yellow, aubergine, greens and black. These brightly coloured Imari porcelains were very popular with the Europeans of the 18th and 19th centuries, with their bright brocade-like colours cheering up the long, dark days of winter.

Imari patterned porcelain is still as popular as ever, although it's functional use has changed in modern times from table wares to a more decorative one such as vases etc. This of course does not include the antique collecting market where antique, or "Ko Imari" offers a rich and varied field for collecting.

The four sided vase decorated in full with the traditional Imari palette of a rich cobalt blue and iron red. Both front and reverse side of the lamp well painted with flower heads and tendril scrolls, the Japanese flower filled shaped reserves enamelled with long tailed birds perched on leafy branches. The flower heads gilded.

The vase - shaped sides well painted with subjects of Buddhist lions, or Shi Shi. The Shi Shi at play with a beribboned ball. In Japanese decorative art the male lion is depicted at play with a ball, the lioness with cubs. The vase shape seated on a rectangular flared base.

The lamp standing on an elaborately carved and gilded four footed stand, the lamp cap similarly gilded. The stand carved with scrolling tendril open work.

This is an exceptionally decorative Imari lamp on stand.

Lamp base and gilded stand Early Meiji - Circa 1870

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Antique Lamps for the Oriental Interior

For the past two centuries, the West has been continually re-inspired by Oriental interior design. It was first inspired in the 18^th century with the first British embassy to Imperial China in 1793 when Lord McCartney was received in Beijing by the Qianlong emperor.

This historically diplomatic event began an English love affair with Chinese decoration and art, reaching its high point during the period of the English Regency of George the IV. It was the French, however, who instigated the European love of Chinese art and culture with the French term “Chinoiserie” used to describe this exotic, decorative style. Today the Western enthusiasm for the Oriental interior continues to grow, especially with China’s recent rapproachmont with the West.

Interior lighting, of course, is a major contributor to the successful outcome of a decorative scheme. So much so, that poorly thought through lighting can make or break a beautiful interior. With this in mind, The Antique and Vintage Table Lamp Co offer a range of both Chinese and Japanese lamps, all designed to compliment the Oriental décor. Their lamps are antique in the true sense of the word, with lamps designated as antique being a minimum of 100 years old.

To Western eyes, the traditional Oriental interior would look rather “undecorated” with fewer items of furniture, often carved and lacquered. The interior colour scheme is much richer than the Western interpretation, with the Chinese love of strong colours. Chinese traditional interiors use bold colours, with red predominating along with other bright colours such as yellow and green. Within this interior style, lamps other than Oriental could look entirely out of place. The appropriate lamp will “pull the look together”, particularly when combined with sumptuous, silk lamp shades in Eastern style.

With the use of well placed antique lamps, the interior scheme will result in a harmonious balance of complimentary colours and style. Fine antique and decorative lighting, both of Chinese and Japanese design, is available online from The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co at www.antiquelampshop.com

© The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co 2008

Antique Lamps in Classic Style

A definition of “classic” is - “a work of recognized excellence", or one that has “stood the test of time”.

A classic antique lamp, by its very definition, well qualifies having seen a minimum of 100 years of changes in fashion, trends and faddish crazes. Here it stands a century later, as elegant and timeless as the day it was made, having survived them all!

The Antique and Vintage Table Lamp Co offer a superior range of authentic, antique and vintage lighting. Their exquisite table lamps are revived, once again blending art and function, each lamp being an original "one-off" with no repeats.

Mass production, by comparison, distributes thousands of copies of one design onto a market with the term “cookie cutter” production demonstrating this idea clearly. Mass production can and should mean, a lower price, (although, not always). In the case of a unique and genuine antique piece, the price can reasonably be expected to be higher than one made “en masse”.

Matched thoughtfully with a well suited, custom made, silk lampshade, the thoughtfully placed antique lamp may be “seen, but not heard". Recognised by its understated presence it will graciously contribute to the harmony of an interior, its beauty obvious to the discerning eye.

The Antique and Vintage Table Lamp Co constantly source quality, antique and vintage table lamps for careful restoration. Their in-house, hand made, silk lamp shades perfectly compliment to produce "the antique lamp in classic style“.

You are invited to visit their web site at www.antiquelampshop.com

© The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co 2008