{"product_id":"vintage-frederick-cooper-gothic-revival-table-lamp-c-1970-2000","title":"Vintage Frederick Cooper Art Nouveau Table Lamp, c. 1985–2005","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA Frederick Cooper table lamp on a cast standard of three sinuous stems, marked on the socket shell for the Chicago house that made it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe stems rise from a turned wood disc, each one curling into a whiplash foot at the bottom and breaking into a leaf partway up, and they close together under a shallow chased dish that carries the brass riser to the socket. It reads as one piece of ironwork and is in fact several castings assembled on a central rod. Openwork the whole way, so the lamp draws a line in a room rather than filling a space in it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe finish is applied rather than bare: a dark ground, gilt rubbed onto the raised work, green settled into the hollows. The wood base is stained to the same register so metal and timber read as one object.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe brass socket shell carries the maker's name in a band, FREDERICK COOPER above CHICAGO.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo shades come with it. The one fitted is a cream silk bell, both rims bound in a woven ivory galloon carrying a running lozenge figure, held on a brass spider under a turned brass urn finial. It is the taller and plainer of the two and it gives the ironwork room to read.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe second is the lamp's own. A hexagonal silk bell in warm beige, the lower rim cut into a scallop that lifts at each seam, every panel piped in self fabric and sewn over a wire frame rather than laminated onto a backing. Frederick Cooper built its shades in its own Chicago shop alongside the bases, so a signed lamp that still has the shade it left with is the uncommon half of the pair.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrederick Cooper was a Chicago artist who set up a studio in 1923 to make sculpture and watercolours and found his way into lamp design from there. That origin is the character of the firm. Cooper treated a lamp as a small sculpture that happened to hold a bulb, and the house went on working that way from a four-storey plant at 2545 West Diversey Avenue, through the decades when Chicago was the lighting capital of the American trade.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mark sets a hard ceiling. That Diversey Avenue plant closed in 2005 and the building was sold off and redeveloped; the name was revived under Wildwood in 2011 and now works out of Rocky Mount, North Carolina. A lamp that says CHICAGO on its socket was made before the plant shut.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe finish sets the floor. Frederick Cooper's metal work through the middle of the century and into the early eighties is overwhelmingly polished or lacquered brass, which is what fills the surviving trade inventory. A multi-layer antiqued finish of this kind, gilt rubbed over a dark ground with green in the recesses and the wood stained to match it, belongs to the Old World decorating that took over American furnishings from the later eighties.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn that evidence it is offered as c. 1985 to 2005. Four things would narrow it further: whether the plug is polarised, whether a UL or wattage label survives on the cord or socket, whether a model number or foil label survives under the base, and whether a maker's label survives sewn inside the shade.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eType\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTable lamp, cast metal standard on a turned wood base\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFrederick Cooper, Chicago\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFREDERICK COOPER above CHICAGO, in a band on the brass socket shell\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eStandard\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThree cast stems with whiplash feet and leaf forms, carrying a chased dish\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFinish\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApplied antique patina, dark ground with gilt on the raised work and green in the recesses\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBase\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTurned wood disc, dark stained\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFittings\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBrass riser to a brass socket shell with knurled cap, gold cord and plug. Shade carried on a harp and finial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eShade Fitted\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCream silk bell, both rims bound in woven ivory galloon, brass spider fitting with a turned brass urn finial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSecond Shade\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIncluded. The lamp's original hexagonal silk bell in warm beige, scalloped lower rim, piped seams sewn over a wire frame, four-arm spider fitting\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1985–2005\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHeight\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e28 in. overall with the fitted shade\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eShade Diameter\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e14 in. across the lower rim\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBase Diameter\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e6 in.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSound and complete, and it ships with both shades. Antiqued finish intact across the standard with the light rubbing to the raised work that the finish is designed to show. Wood base sound with minor handling marks. Both shades clean and unsplit with light age toning, frames true and piping sound. Retains its brass socket, gold cord and plug. As with any lamp of this age, have the wiring checked before putting it into service.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe standard is openwork top to bottom, so it sits on a chest, a hall table or a nightstand without closing the surface down the way a solid column does. At twenty-eight inches it is a lamp for a side table rather than a statement for a console.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe antiqued finish is the useful part. It does not fight an old room the way polished brass can, and it sits with oak, leather, iron and plaster instead of arguing with them. Set it against a deep wall and the gilt on the stems does the work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is signed and it is complete, and it arrives with a choice. Frederick Cooper is a name the trade knows, the Chicago plant is gone, and most of what survives has lost its shade to decades of replacements. This one kept its own and gained a second, so a room that wants the quieter cream and a room that wants the scalloped original are both served by the same lamp.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Frederick Cooper","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50412387762281,"sku":"VE-1689","price":1488.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/C5C7FA6C-C5EB-45FE-B9E3-5F38882AD98C.jpg?v=1790239620","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/vintage-frederick-cooper-gothic-revival-table-lamp-c-1970-2000","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}