Stained Glass & Art Lamps

Re-creating the past

As scholarship has grown and the revival has embraced many diverse roots, we better recognize sub-styles in work that emerged during the first and second decades of the 20th century in Arts & Crafts lighting.

Copper Artistry in Lighting.

A key craft of the A&C movement was metalwork, ubiquitous as architectural and furniture hardware. Once again it’s possible to get period-style hardware from the frank to the bizarre—and from both artisan shops and larger manufacturers.

A resurgence of fine work brings us such useful and beautiful objects for the home as fireplace tools, stove hoods, garden gates, handsome lighting, metal art tiles, and tabletop wares.

Even coated in grime and with broken glass, fixtures can be brought back to use and beauty.

Choosing lighting may be the most fun you can have when you are decorating a house. Arts & Crafts-era lighting was designed from the beginning for electricity. That led to an explosion of forms, both traditional (based on candlestick or gaslight) and brand new.

Verde Iridile, Agalite, and Cuirass: These romantic trade names were the marketing monikers for a popular series of Arts & Crafts-inspired lighting shades of deceptive beauty.

A look at light fixtures, art lamps and glass, hardware and metalwork of the Arts & Crafts Revival.

Could there be anything else that so perfectly combines Beauty and Utility as art lighting? Designed from the beginning for electricity, in a period that championed craftsmanship, Arts & Crafts lamps and fixtures represent an unprecedented marriage of technology and artisanry.

Finally, technology is catching up with aesthetics. You can stop stockpiling energy-gobbling incandescent light bulbs.

Yanked, pulled, slammed—the bits of metal, wood, and glass that allow drawers and doors on cabinets and furniture to operate smoothly at the touch of a hand are overlooked works of art.

Recent work—table lamps and floor lamps—carefully chosen by the editors. This Arts & Crafts lighting adds an artistic accent to any home.

Like jewelry for your home, the lighting and metalwork add style and shine in copper and brass and iron.

Hardware can be a big deal in the kitchen, or fade into the background. Quality products are available in every style and era, and in many metals and finishes.

Hand-forged tables with signature motifs (like the Moustache scroll) are one specialty of father and son.

Artist Glenn Pankewich has been restoring, interpreting, and finding new inspiration in the art glass of a century ago.

Bungalows, Tudors, and Foursquares date to the electric era, after all, so lighting is integral to the Arts & Crafts interior. Craftsman lighting adds immeasurably to the mood.