Victorian Lamps
Victorian lamps are custom made lampshades that fit over the headboard of your bed or they can be used over the top of a mirror or mounted on the wall. Victorian lamps are a wonderful addition to any bedroom. They generally come with two wire hooks that fit over the headboard or a mirror. The hooks are wrapped in velvet to safeguard your furniture. One can also find larger hooks for a sleigh bed. They can also be designed to attach to the wall.
When buying a lampshade today, keep the design of the lamp base in mind. Curved shades compliment curved lamps and angular shades generally work best with angular lamps. Shade frames are available for lamp bases with harps, floor lamps, bridge lamps with glass bowls, chandeliers, headboards, night-lights and more.
Shade frames can normally be recovered or new ones can be purchased. An antique frame is stripped with rust-retardant and recovered. Over the years, a large variety of styles were designed and interestingly one can even find the names for all the frames. Since flowers played an important role in the Victorian decorating scheme, many have names such as Tulip and Daffodil. The frame is then wrapped with cotton twill tape to enable the maker to stitch the fabric onto the metal. Wrapping with the correct tension is an art that either results in a quality product or inferior piece.
The intricate patterns made by the joining of the metal wires create small “windows” and each window (panel) is lined with satin, silk or other beautiful fabrics. While quality domestic fabrics are frequently used today, many individuals choose imported fabrics similar to those in fine Victorian homes.
One of the most popular unique effects is the “rosette”. Here again the flower theme is repeated with stitching techniques that result in rose-like puffs. Usually they are pooled with pleating or shirring that finishes the look. Another method is “fan pleating” – a pattern that is suggestive of the fans used by Victorian ladies to cool themselves. Lace or burnout velvet is most often sewn on adjoining panels.
The shade is finished with lace, braid, ribbon and specialty trims. The finishing trim is either applied by sewing or with hi-tech bonding agents (not hot glue). Tremendous hand-dyed fringe or sparkling beads and matching tassels for pull chains complete the finishing touches.
There are excellent models of Victorian lamps available in the market and one can use them to make their room look attractive and amazing.