This obviously amazing danish style light fixture popped up on craigslist over the weekend, late Friday night I believe, and I immediately shot off and e-mail about it. Not having been listed as anything special (no keywords like "Mid Century, Danish, Eames Era") I figured I'd have a pretty good shot at picking it up Saturday morning and I was right! I got a call from the seller early Saturday morning, got the address and tooled right over to pick it up! Sweet!
Yeah, Sweet! But, if you remember nothing else from reading this today, know this: no good
deed goes unpunished. The seller asked only $15 each or $25 for both of two different
fixtures that he was selling out of a tear down property. I hadn't looked at the ad since the
night before and I got it in my head that he was asking $25 each and after seeing the second
fixture and realizing that it would probably end up in a dumpster I decided to take both. I
pulled a 50 from my pocket to pay the guy and he said they were only $25 for both...but
c'mon, look at that danish style pendant light, I knew it was worth MUCH more by itself.
I gave him the $50 for both and he just kinda shrugged and gladly accepted the extra dough.
I figured my craigslist Karma could use the boost after my piss and moan session a few days ago.
But just moments after paying the gentleman and making my way back to the car, disaster. I
was being SO careful! I was gently laying the fixture in the back of the car when one of the
glass pendants lazily rolled about a half inch over and gingerly tapped another pendant. It
was so surreal. It barely made any sound. I only knew it happened because I saw the big
hole left in it's wake! I was so stunned it took me a good ten seconds to get pissed. "Did
that sh*t REALLY just happen?!?!" Yes, Mr. Modtomic...yes indeed, it certainly did. How
sad is that? That fixture had probably been hanging in that house for 50 - 60 years without
damage. I take possession and it's destroyed inside of a minute! Now of course I'm going
to hang onto it and see if I can find a matching pendant, but if after a while I can't...it'll get
parted out and live on bringing life back to it's brothers and sisters out there in the greater
vintage modern landscape.
This one made it home unscathed. Way not as interesting but I couldn't leave it behind.
Surely someone will need this for there more conservative dining space. I'll either put it
in my booth space or have Momtomic put it in hers, if she thinks it'll sell in hers. It's got
a cool shape and I like the dimensionality of the clear glass.
Hey Superman (it's a long story, folks),
ReplyDeleteYou gots haters?
Idea! Do a post on your best hate mails. Leave the losers anonymous, but let's all have a look, point our fingers, and laugh at them.
Probably everyone has had the same thing happen at one time or another. Mine was a two light tension lamp with plastic cylinders and twisted brass arms. In transporting home to fix the brass arm from drooping, managed to knock one of the very fragile plastic shades of a bench and shatter! I will likely never be able to find a replacement and will have to repurposein some other fashion. Bummer :(
ReplyDeleteWell, I like you. Haters gonna hate.
ReplyDeleteMy mishap was a gorgeous Lightolier 8 globe chandelier in a resale shop. The tag on it was $10.00. I picked it up to turn it over and ALL the globe light covers fell off and 3 of them shattered all around me! Yikes! I didn't notice they were missing the screws that kept them on... I was told not to worry, they weren't going to make me buy it...hopefully I wasn't hurt... I wasn't and I went ahead and bought it anyway...so I still have 5 globe covers and the light fixture turned out to be full of rusty water...Noel might have thrown it away...I'll have to ask him. I just checked it's still in his studio. Anyway, it was good not to piss the thrift gods off because I also bought some books there that day. I paid 50 cents for a copy of...get ready for it..."Instrumental Insemination of Honey Bee Queens" self-published in 1978 with a plastic GBC binding...and sold it for $129.95! And one other book for 10.95. Altogether that day I spent 15.50 at that shop. That was a good day...
ReplyDeletePS - Never worry about the haters...they're just jealous!
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame! That's a pretty sweet looking lamp, but it happens to the best of us.
ReplyDeleteThat's a cryin' shame. I love that particular style of lamp.
ReplyDeleteits really not about hate or jealousy ,it is good to be modest and reflect on what might be revealed about our selves,there is much to be learned from many sources.,and it can't be learned by deflecting criticism, especially that of a constructive nature.to do so is to stay as we are and fault others.
ReplyDeletenevertheless ;is'nt mid century things wonderful.
there is room here for all to enjoy the good things from that era.
lets chill and enjoy the ride.
Please, please, for the love of all that's mid-century, use capital letters, spell check, and at least attempt correct punctuation. You might have some good points hiding under all the sloppy writing. . .I can't really tell.
DeleteI love those lights - so sorry it broke! I recently had a similar shade break on a single pendant. That type of shade is super fragile! Mine just barely got bumped too.
ReplyDeleteBuddy the Bat Signal is lit and I'm on the job like a fat kid on Smartie. I have some Holy Grail honey holes that just "MAY" have parts for that lamp and cheap. For the love of all things Danish don't part out yet.
ReplyDeleteI had my brother-in-law scoop up an old George Nelson Bubble on the other side of Illinois for me a while back. He picked it up by the cord and I guess the wire nuts broke free and the bubble hit the ground and shattered.
ReplyDeleteI thought he was kidding when he told me. For the next year I kept expecting it to turn up on my birthday or Christmas or something. No dice. It was dead.
I'm sure someone has a nice spot near a wall for this awesome fixture- it still looks great in the first picture so just hide the hole!
ReplyDeleteI broke a lamp just like this. My biggest breakage was in the process of shipping a set of La Fonda del Sol China. I picked up a cup and immediately dropped it. Fortunately I had extras.
ReplyDelete