Reference Library Update: In Our Time – Fortune Magazine, February 1932. A short piece on Diego Rivera as the most important Western Hemisphere artist of the time. 2 page article and 3 vintage advertisements. Click on the magazine cover below to read the article.
Ebay Description: Industrial Looking Vintage Art Deco Desk Lamp With Adjustable Arm
This lamp is definitely not Deco. We’re not sure what style it is – Arts and Crafts? Victorian? And we’re not even sure if it is a desk lamp or should be wall mounted. Chris’ thought on this is that it looks like a gas lamp fixture converted to electricity. Frankly it looks like a candlestick telephone from Count Dracula’s house.
Desk Lamp 2
Ebay Description: Vintage Chase Art Deco Machine Age Chrome C Table Desk Lamp Industrial Lighting
This is a classic Art Deco desk lamp. Made for the gift and specialty division of the Chase Brass and Copper Company was sold from 1935 – 1942. It has many attributes of the streamline era, including the fluted “C” shape arm and joining pieces. The indented, black painted circles on the base. This must have been a very popular lamp in the 1930’s as many of these can be found at antique stores today. We’ve seen the prices vary from about $50.00 on the low end (a really good price) – over $500.00 on the high end (way too much.) Originally these lamps came with a cone shaped paper shade.
Desk Lamp 3
Ebay description: 1920s Vintage Antique Art Deco Bohemian Czech Boudoir Desk Lamp with Shade
If something is from the 1920’s it doesn’t mean that it is Art Deco. That is certainly true of the lamp above. Art Deco as a design style did not really become available to mainstream consumers until the end of the decade. And even then it was not the most popular of styles. This lamp, which looks more like a table or nightstand lamp rather than for a desk, while pretty is not Deco.
Desk Lamp 4
Ebay Description: Black ceramic vtg art deco desk or table lamp no shade.
This is what we call “1950’s Art Deco”. The Art Deco era ended in 1940, but elements of it continued on in an exaggerated fashion into the mid-1950’s before mid-century modern really took hold. This nightstand lamp is 1950’s not Deco.
Desk Lamp 5
On line Description: Art Deco lighting. Polaroid desk lamp designed by Walter Dorwin Teague for the Polaroid Corporation.
This was a tricky one. This certainly looks like a lamp for the late 1940’s or early 1950’s but the design goes back to 1937. A creation of Walter Dorwin Teague and Frank Del Giudice for the Polaroid Company years before it started instant photography. This lamp design would bridge the end of the Deco era into the postwar Mid-Century Modern era. But it is a Deco lamp.
Desk Lamp 6
Ebay Description: Vintage Elwood, IN Mid Century Faries Desk Art Deco Cobra Style Lamp
Here was another tricky one. The Cobra Lamp is often attributed to Norman Bel Geddes, but it was actually designed by Jean Otis Reinecke. Reinecke was awarded a patent for it in 1947 and it was sold by the Faries Company from 1946 -1952. The actual name for the lamp is 60243 (not very catchy). Since this is a post World War 2 creation it is not deco. But the influence of the Walter Dorwin Teague Polaroid lamp above was certainly an influence.
Desk Lamp 7
On line Description: ADNET French Art Deco Modernist Chrome Desk Lamp c1930
Jacques Adent a famous French modernist designer created this lamp in the early 1930’s. The Deco pedigree is very high for this chrome beauty.
Our first thought when seeing this lamp was WOW!!!! We feel the less said about this the better. But really “Tiffany Style” that never spells D-E-C-O in our book. Then “Art Deco Victorian” those two design eras never met up with each other, I mean there was King Edward VII between Queen Victoria and King George V. “Art Deco Victorian” don’t get us started.
Desk Lamp 9
Ebay Description: Art Deco MARKEL Chrome Machine Age Antique Desk Table Lamp industrial modern
This is Deco, despite the somewhat traditional style shade. The Markel Company of Buffalo, New York produced many fine Deco desk lamps. And while this one is quite in the same league as some of the others it does share some similarities such as the chrome and especially the chrome discs and finial on the base.
Okay, this was another tricky one, but there was a big clue in the description – “Fluorescent”. Fluorescent lighting was introduced on a large scale at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. But it didn’t really start to become available for home use until after the Second World War. We think that what ever company produced this lamp used mold from prewar lamps for the ends of the shade and the pole holding the lamp up. And we will give you the fact that it is more Deco than “steampunk”.
Welcome to the first Driving For Deco Quiz. This short ten question quiz will test your knowledge of Art Deco desk lamps. All of the lamps below were listed either on ebay or in online stores and had descriptions using either Art Deco or Deco. Some are and some are not. Next Friday, we will post a follow up explaining why or why not the lamps in the quiz were Deco. Have fun!
Soda King Syphon advertisement. Washington Post – September 9, 1935
The syphon bottle was a must for any home bar in the 1930’s. And Soda King produced the best designed ones. The Walter Kidde Sales Company, originally a construction company, became a pioneer in the fire suppression business. Kidde purchased the Rich Company’s on-board ship fire extinguishing system in 1918. Changing the method of suppression from steam to carbon dioxide proved very successful. As a result of the use of pressurized c02 the company diversified into the syphon bottle business in the mid-1930’s.
New York Times Sparklet Ad. November 8, 1933.
The Sparklets Company dominated the soda syphon field in the early 1930’s. This is supported by how many of their bottles are available in antique stores today. The Sparklet syphon has a timeless, classic design of a silver basket weave mesh over a Czech glass bottle topped by a chrome syphon. They were imported from England and sold in finer stores for $5.00 ($92.50 in 2016) in the early 1930’s. A heavy sales campaign began with the Christmas season of 1933 and the repeal of prohibition.
Chrome Plated Soda King Syphon Bottle, 1935.
The Walter Kidde Sales Company introduced the Soda King in 1935 to get in on the syphon bottle action. The original design only lasted about a year and was the most whimsical of the any of the syphon bottles. The chrome plated casing featured an engraved scene of waves and fish swimming along the bottom. The viewing windows along three sides of the bottle look like bubbles rising from the fish. Stamped in red letters near the top is the fill limit mark. None of the subsequent designs would be this elaborate.
The new Soda King Syphon Bottle. 1936
While the first Soda King bottle had a fun design, it must have been costly to make. By the end of 1936 a simplified version became available to stores. This new syphon weighed significantly less than the first one. Gone also were the fish, the waves and the “bubble” windows. A set of painted black bands of varying widths now encircled the bottom of the bottle. Only two sets of windows in straight lines ran up the sides. A black Bakelite syphon replaced the original chrome one.
Four days after Christmas 1936 Bullock’s department store in Los Angeles ran an advertisement (seen below) featuring the new Soda King bottle. This ad is the earliest print reference to the new design that I’ve seen.
Bullock’s Department Store advertisement. December 29, 1936. Los Angeles Times.
While this new design was simpler to produce it too only lasted a couple of years. It would return in the 1950’s with an aluminum case and minus its stripes. In the works and just in time for the 1939 New York World’s Fair, came a completely redesigned Soda King. This new bottle can be best described as “the syphon of tomorrow”. Co-designed by Worthen Paxton (1905-1977) and famed industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes (1893-1958), this syphon is now part of many museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan and The Dallas Museum of Art.
Bel Geddes – Paxton Soda King, Black. 1938
Bel Geddes – Paxton Soda King, Blue. 1938
Bel Geddes – Paxton Soda King, Chrome. 1938
Bel Geddes – Paxton Soda King, Red. 1938
Bel Geddes – Paxton Soda King, White. 1938
Norman Bel Geddes, circa 1937. Image from Bettmann / Corbis.
In stores for the 1938 Christmas shopping season, the new streamlined designed Soda King bottle only lasted a couple of years. I do not know the reason for the short life span for this model. It might have been difficult to produce or it did not function well or it was just too modern or avant-garde for people’s taste.
Barker Bros. Advertisement. Soda King bottle at bottom left. Los Angeles Times, November 27, 1938
What ever the reason, by Christmas 1941 Soda King syphon bottles of more traditional designs had replaced it in stores. The latest advertisement that I could find with the Bel Geddes-Paxton is the one below.
The last known advertisement for the Bel Geddes-Paxton Soda King Syphon Bottle. Chicago Daily Tribune August 8, 1941.
The Norman Bel Geddes-Worthen Paxton Soda King is high on my list of wanted Art Deco collectibles. To date I’ve only seen one and it had a price tag of $450.00, which is much more than I am willing to pay. But if I keep looking someday I might stumble across one at a price (hopefully) less than $100.00. I did find a 1935 style chrome Soda King (the one with the fish on it) at the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market in Manhattan not too long ago. And at a price of $60.00 it was too good to pass up.
The Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market – West 39th Street (Between 9th & 10th Avenues) in New York City.
Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market West 39th Street. Looking east toward 9th Avenue.
The Chrome Soda King has found its place of honor. It sits on top of my little Art Deco dry bar in the hallway of my house. Unfortunately, like the other syphon bottles I own it does not work. The syphon mechanism is more complicated than it appears. The rubber gaskets have dried up and no longer form a proper seal. Repair costs far outweigh the value of the bottle. Still, as a purely decorative piece they add a nice Deco touch.
Art Deco Dry Bar. With Soda King Syphon Bottle and Kensington Cocktail Shaker.
Dry Bar open. Showing shelves for a decanter, cocktail cups and other bar accoutrements.
Anthony & Chris (The Freakin’, Tiquen Guys)
If you enjoyed this post check out this earlier one on vintage cocktails: