Illustrated FURNITURE Glossary............. Stained Glass Glossary

Lighting - Vocabulary

Acid Etching
A method for decorating glass. The glass surface is covered with wax, the desired design is inscribed in the wax, and then hydrofluoric acid is applied. The acid will only corrode the areas that are not covered by wax. This process produces a flatter design than engraving.

Argand
The burner type designed by Ami Argand which employs a circular wick held between to concentric metal tubes and uses a chimney and improved air flow design to produce a brighter, more efficient flame. Also refers to the early style of lamp using the Argand principle with a centrally located oil fount feeding the burner that is mounted on an arm away from the fount. The more recent student lamp is a revival of this early design.

Art Deco style
The name "Art Deco" comes from the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs Industriels et Modernes, held in Paris, which celebrated living in the modern world.

Art Deco was essentially a style of decoration and was applied to jewelry, clothing, furniture and handicrafts as well as buildings. Industrial designers created Art Deco motifs (patterns) to adorn their streamlined cars, trains and kitchen appliances. Art Deco ornamentation consists largely of low relief geometrical designs, often in the form of parallel straight lines, zigzags, chevrons and stylized floral motifs.

Art Nouveau style
The French "new art" that took bold in Europe and America in the 1890's. The style used flat patterns of twisting plant forms based on nature, sometimes tortured. It was characterized by its use of fluid, sinuous lines and organic, elongated forms. The movement's signature motif was the S-curve, which might be found in a flower's stem on a brooch or the trail of smoke from a cigarette depicted in a theater poster.

The style, which means "new art," gets its name from a design shop, La Maison de l'Art Nouveau, which German entrepreneur Siegfried Bing opened in Paris in1895. The shop was one of the major outlets for the glass of Emile Galle, the art glass of Louis Tiffany, the jewelry of Rene Lalique, and the furniture of Eugene Gaillard and George DeFeure

See also: Art Nouveau - Architecture; Art Nouveau - Furniture

Arts and Crafts style
In 19th century England, the Arts and Crafts movement was an outraged response to the Industrial Revolution, which was threatening time-honored manual crafts with extinction. The movement was also one of social and political reform.

In America, the Arts and Crafts movement, 1890-1920 is often referred to as the Craftsman movement

See also: Arts and Crafts - Architecture; Arts and Crafts - Furniture

Aurene
The name "Aurene" was derived form the Latin word for gold, "aurum," and the old English word for sheen or luster, "schene."

Glassmaker Frederick Carder invented this brand of ornamental glass in 1904. To produce a murky translucent glass with an iridescent surface, the glass was sprayed with stannous chloride or lead chloride, and then reheated.

It was the first iridescent glass Steuben made, and both the gold and the blue colors are very similar to glass that was being made by Tiffany and called "Favrile."

Blown glass / Hand blown glass
Glass that is made on a blowpipe, formed and shaped by hand.

Bracket lamp -- Any variation of lamp designed to be mounted on a vertical surface and extend outward. Many are adjustable side-to-side and swing outward. Brackets can be made of brass, bronze, cast iron, etc. Founts can be either metal or glass. Many bracket lamps feature reflectors mounted behind the lamp to increase the light output.

Canopy
The part of a lighting fixture the mounts to the ceiling. In a pull-down hall lamp fixture, the part that hangs from the ceiling and contains the pulleys.


Chandelier
A branched decorative ceiling-mounted light fixture with two or more arms bearing lights

Chandelier, meaning candleholder, comes from chandelle, the French word for candle.

Chimney
Usually a glass (sometimes mica or even metal) enclosure that helps control the flow of air to and around a lamp burner.

Edison style light bulbs

Electrolier
[Formed from electric in imitation of chandelier.] A branching frame, often of ornamental design, to support electric illuminating lamps.

Engraving
The surface of the glass is decorated by scratching the surface with a rotating copper wheel or a diamond.

Etching
A method of producing designs/patterns on glass whereby acids are used to remove part of the glass and make the design.

Fitter
Generally the lower rim (or lip) of a chimney, globe or shade that that fits into a metal ring, burner or holder. A hall lamp shade, for example, would have a fitter on both ends.

Flashed glass
The process of a glass item being dipped into hot glass of another color in such a manner to cause only a thin layer of it to adhere. This is a less expensive method for making a piece of glass appear to have been made in a solid color. This is a blown glass method and is not to be confused with staining used on pressed glass.

Also known as plating, flashed glass is sometimes cut through to the thicker layer beneath the flashing. The flashing is probably about as thick as a sheet of paper and can still be scratched through, but not as easily as staining.

Gasolier / Gaselier (gas a LEER)
[Formed from gas, in imitation of chandelier.] A chandelier arranged to burn gas.

Glass
Glass is a hard material with non-crystalline, random structure like a liquid. It is commonly made by combining materials such as silica, potash, and lead oxide at a high temperature in order to allow the materials to melt and fuse together. When cooled rapidly, the substance becomes rigid . Glass is often classified as a supercooled liquid rather than a regular solid.

Gone With The Wind Lamp
Generally a vase or parlor lamp with a removable fount and matching painted or embossed decoration on both the lamp base and shade.

Hob nail
Some people identify hobnails as large-headed nails used to protect the sole of a heavy boot or shoe. But in the world of glass, the word "hobnail," sometimes spelled "hob nail," has a very different meaning. "People refer to the hobnail pattern as 'the little things that stick out' on a piece of glass,'" says Kathleen Bailey, an ANTIQUES ROADSHOW appraiser and dealer based in Seattle and Issaquah, Washington. "The easiest way to describe it is as glass that has little bumps over most of its surface."

The word hobnail probably comes from the first surname in Hobbs, Brockunier & Company, from South Wheeling, West Virginia, the company that first patented the raised bumps. Their hobnail pieces are the most famous ones from the late 19th century. The company would sometimes advertise the pattern with other names, such as nodule, dewdrop, or pineapple, but hobnail has become the popular term for the glass.

The pattern went out of fashion in the first half of the 20th century, but was revived from the 1940s to the 1970s by companies such as Duncan Miller and the Fenton Glass Company; the latter is still in business today. Other companies that have offered hobnail patterns were Millersburg, West Moreland, L.G. Wright Company, and Imperial. (Text source:Antiques Roadshow)

One popular type of hob nail style on lamp shades is found on milk glass.

Jeweled
Any lamp or component part (such as a hanging lamp frame) that is adorned with cut or faceted colored glass cabochons.

Lantern
A lighting device, commonly used outdoors, that utilizes a globe to protect the flame from wind and the elements. Most often carried from place to place, thus of fairly rugged construction.

Mantle
A specially made 'tube' or cone of treated material that produces an incandescent glow when heated by a kerosene or gas flame.

Miller (Edward) & Company
Edward Miller started his business in Meriden, Connecticut, in the 1840's making and selling camphene and burning fluid burners.

When Colonel Edwin L. Drake struck oil in Titusville in 1859, kerosene quickly became a safe and affordable lamp fuel. Miller envisioned an immediate need for burners for the new fuel and siezed the opportunity.

In 1868, Miller constructed a brass rolling mill to keep up with his company's demand for brass

As gas became a viable fuel source for cooking, heating and illumination, Miller entered into the manufacture of gas lighting fixtures and stoves. As the age of electricity beckoned, Miller followed the trend, or more appropriately, blazed new trails. He improved upon Thomas Edison's carbon filiment lamp by designing a tungsten filiment lamp. Miller pioneered mercury vapor and fluorescent lighting systems in the late 1930's as well.

Starting around 1884 through 1892, Edward Miller & Company manufactured the "ROCHESTER" line of lamps for The Rochester Lamp Company, located in New York City. They billed themselves as "The largest wholesale and retail lamp store in the world," with branch stores in London, Paris and Chicago. Edward Miller produced, according to the catalog, 2000 designs and of variations of the Rochester, and in every manner of lamp - table, hanging store lamp, hanging library lamp, pull-down hall lamps, bracket lamps, night lamps, and more.

Edward Miller died in 1909 at the age of 82. The Miller Company is still in existence today. (Text source: The Lampworks)

Mold blown glass
Glass that is formed by being blown into a shape or pattern mold, not free-formed.

Mold Marks :Seam lines that remain on the body of the glass after it is removed from the mold.

Mushroom shade

Newel post light

Opalescent
Exhibiting a milky or pearly iridescence like that of an opal.

See American opalescent glass - LaFarge and Tiffany

Patina
The sheen on any surface, produced by age and use.

Pendant light fixture
A light fixture hung from the ceiling on a long stem or chain.

Pressed glass
Glassware formed by placing a blob of molten glass in a metal mold, then pressing it with a metal plunger to form the inside shape. The resulting piece, termed "mold-pressed," has an interior form independent of the exterior, in contrast to mold-blown glass, whose interior corresponds to the outer form.

Prisms
Dangling glass pendants used to embellish a lamp. Often of high quality glass, cut and faceted, to reflect and refract the light. Found on many hanging library/parlor lamps, on girandoles, and overlay lamps, to name a few
Pull feather shade

Reverse painted table lamp
Hand painted on the inside of the shade

Rococo / Rococo Revival styles
Rococo: Ornate style originating in France in the 18th century and evolving from the Baroque style

Rococo Revival: Introduced to America around 1840 and remained dominant throughout the 1860s. Although it is based on the 18th-century European Rococo style, it is much bolder than its model. Ornament is carved in higher relief, and decorative detail is usually far more realistic.

See also: Rococo / Rococo Revival - Furniture

Sheffield style
First introduced by American lighting manufacturers around 1900, the graceful lines and distinctive shell-like ribbing of the Sheffield style strongly evoke the work of expert Colonial metalsmiths.
An early Colonial Revival motif. And not being tied to any specific architectural style, it works well in a variety of period and period-inspired homes.
Era: 1900 - 1925

Slip fit shades

Stained glass
A process of coating a piece of glass with a chemical whose true color is developed by heat. This is the least expensive way of coloring glass.

The staining material is painted on the annealed [cooled] article with a brush wherever the decorative effect is desired. It is then fired on for permanency at which time the glass assumes the desired color.

Steuben Glass Co.
Official Home Page: Founded in 1903 by English glassmaker Frederick Carder, Steuben is an American company named after Steuben County, New York, where our design studio and sole glassworks facility are still located.
The company was acquired by Corning Glass Works (now Corning Incorporated) in 1918, and in 1933, Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. was appointed Steuben's president. Soon after, he revolutionized the art glass industry with the introduction of clear Steuben crystal -- a new optical glass of unparalleled brilliance and purity formulated by Corning Glass Works scientists.

Wedding cake

Zipper shade


Photos and their arrangement © 2005 Chuck LaChiusa
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