How about eBay? I love antique lighting and I see many beautiful antique lights on there all the time.

One word of caution, which you may know but maybe not everyone reading this does... you always want to get the old fixtures re-wired. They can do that for you anywhere they repair lamps, but I suspect if you take the fixture to the hardware store they can help you there. That old original wiring may burn your house down.

Best selection that I've found is on ebay.

Ebay is the way to go with great selection and price. Just be sure to have wiring checked and get the piece insured before shipping if it has any crystal.

Most of my house is from ebay. Do have the wiring checked, and do the insurance, I have been burned there before (I've been burned with the insurance as well so pay via credit card if you can...even paypal takes those).

I almost always have the pieces rewired. But I also have purchased some in terrible and original condition which I've totally restored. If you're at all into that, let me know and I'll share the how too's :) It's fun to do, and you can personalize much of the art deco stuff to your color scheme. Just don't go nuts. Many of the pieces are really garish...finished in colors that you'd have never seen IRL during it's time. Those I look for and pick up for a song, repaint in simple classy colors and sell them in my antique booth. :)

If you get something from ebay and don't feel like restoring it yourself, I had WONDERFUL service from an ebay seller, jfpegan. He also sells antique lighting too (and some reproduction stuff). His prices were reasonable and he did a fabulous job rewiring and restoring my fixtures - including using rebuilt (to UL standards) antique sockets on my early electric chandelier. I was going to do it myself but it was just too complicated - it needed to be lengthened and even though it had been acid dipped really required a professional polish, plus it was impossible for me to thread the wires through the tiny little pipes and get it all back together. Newer fixtures are easier to handle but early electric and gas/electric fixtures are a challenge because of the size of the pipes.

Here's what it looked like before:

Here's a closeup of one of the parts after the acid dip:

Same part after the polish:

and here it is installed:

I chose to not have it lacquered and now it's picking up the most beautiful patina. One of these days I want to give it a light hand polish because it will show off the detail even more (leaving the patina in the grooves of course).

He also called me to talk about exactly how I wanted things, options regarding sockets etc and you can tell he's a true "old school" craftsman. He just LOVED chatting about antique lighting and really knows his stuff! He has a website but it only lists his reproduction stuff but on ebay he sells stuff that has been restored.

Another vote for ebay. I have bought about 12 light fixtures (most of them from 1900-1920) and plan to rewire them. You cannot find anything as beautiful as the real, old stuff. That being said, another great place (as you probably already know) is Rejuvenation (reproduction light fixtures at rejuvenation.com).

Igloo, I could use advice on how to rewire my ebay treasures (e.g. I just bought an old chandelier last night out of an old jewelry store that is being gutted in Belgium). Also, about how much should I expect to pay per fixture to have them rewired by someone else -- these are not table lamps but rather flush mount, chandelier type and wall sconce fixtures?

Igloo, you are simply amazing. How do you find the time for everything on your plate? Hope things are off to a good start in MD.

We start our program tomorrow at noon Susie, so we'll see how that goes.

I have to read over what I said...when I said I "restore" them, what I mean is that I paint and lacquer them, then I take that product down to my local lighting dealer and they rewire them :) I pay anywhere from $20 to $40 per fixture (20 is their basic fee for anything, $40 was a five light chandelier which needed new wire and new ceramic cups).

I once rewired my own lamp. It still is in our home...with the top somewhat crooked...I never could get the freaking pieces tight, which is why I now know that it's worth paying expert. I go with someone who has their UL certification (verses the neighbor who's really handy, but isn't responsible if my house burns down).

I have also purchased a few pieces from rejuvination and highly recommend them as well. The prices are ummm well let's say "high" :) But the quality is next to the original and I must admit on occasion better.

Word to the wise on buying pieces that need restoration. If they're not cast iron or brass, and they have broken metal work, don't buy them. Pot metal was used widely during the war and it can't be repaired. Cast iron weighs a TON and a magnet will stick to it, pot metal is lightweight normally and a magnet won't stick.

Many pieces are aluminum though, which weighs nothing, but is easy to refinish.

This is an exact copy of my antique kitchen lighting (mine has a silver body with gold accents though). It came in gold, silver or gold/silver. I absolutely love it. This one is for sale in a store in MN for $2250. I paid $2000 for four of them and spent about $50 per piece to have them restored (wiring) and I painted and finished them. You can get GREAT buys on ebay. Slip shade fixtures go for anywhere between $250 and $500 each with all shades. In an antique store, those sell around $750 to over $2500.
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Susie if you saw me tonight you'd know that occasionally the energy level slips down to squat :o( I'm having a bad day and looking for someone to take it out on...ok maybe not :) But today does kind of suck. I think it's anticipation of the "fun" to come.

And now I"m off to write a carepage and sound cheerful....blah blah blah :oP

Rejuvenation is a company that we got several catalogues from when we were building. I didn't buy from them but remember thinking they had a lot of nice lighting.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rejuvenation

Rejuvenation is all new lighting. I'm another ebay vote - we've bought and sold lighting there. Another idea is to find companies near you that do home demolition auctions. We bought our dining room fixture at one of them. If you live anywhere near Chicago, in/near the Twin Cities or in south central Wisconsin, I know of some stores that only sell antique lighting.

Actually rejuvenation does have some antique lighting for sale as well (restored) but it costs an arm and a leg and three other arms and a foot. But it's nice stuff!

igloo, you're right - I'd forgotten about that.

Igloochic, yes please tell us about how you refinish them.

Kgwlisa, wow, he did a wonderful job! That's a beautiful fixture.

My daughter found a gorgeous fixture in her garage (bought an old house and started exploring the rafters), but one of the slipshades is missing. She keeps haunting eBay looking for one like it, but so far no luck.

Finding matching shades to most things on ebay seems to be nearly impossible. I have another fixture, one that I probably paid FAR too much for, but I fell in love with the shades. It's more like ca1920, a pan chandelier with a dome and 4 drops. It's not so much the fixture that I fell in love with as much as the shades. As it turns out I've had more than one person identify them as unmarked steuben shades. They are just exquisite. They are a pale amber glass that has been iridized, etched with a darker amber AND cut. I've been on the lookout for two more of the drop shades for the sconces in my living room for years now but no luck. This fixture was sold on ebay by a localish seller and I actually went out to her place to see it in person before purchasing it because it was so much money.

The fixture isn't worth much (at the time, maybe $100-200) but a similar set of shades went for $600 by themselves around the same time on ebay. I think it was $550 for the fixture plus $125 to restore. It had been painted but was solid brass underneath (and the paint was in rough shape) but the shades were in perfect condition. John Pegan did this one for me too and he changed the switches on the drops from pull switches (which I hated the look of) to paddles. He also stripped the paint, polished, rewired, shortened and replaced the canopy (the fixture did not come with one, the one he used is an antique of the same vintage).

Here is the before of that fixture:

and after:

For both fixtures I felt horribly embarrassed that I had overpaid. For the early electric fixture (late 1800's) I paid $650 for what arrived to me looking like a pile of junk. I almost cried. It cost $100 to restore and when I was talking to John Pegan he told me it was worth a lot more restored than I had paid even in the midwest. When I did find similar fixtures at fancy antique lighting places (online but definitely high prices) they went for thousands.

Ditto for the living room fixture, I was convinced I paid too much and he said that the fixture itself wasn't worth all that much but the shades were unmarked steuben. He has seen them once before in white (not amber) and a guy he knows who has a huge inventory of shades got a lot more than what I paid for the fixture for that set.

I'm sure rejuvenation does have beautiful fixtures but some of the stuff I've looked at still can't hold a candle to the actual antique stuff. I also got a pair of sconces for my living room from jfpegan to coordinate with the chandelier. After he received the chandelier he sent me pictures of a few unrestored choices and these are the ones I picked. I was planning to get the rejuvenation sconces, nearly $100 a piece at the time but when I saw these ($85 for the pair rewired and polished) I fell in love. Here is a comparison picture and you can see, there is no comparison between the two.

That was with a shade from the chandelier - I have never found two more though and i have some plain white placeholders in there right now. :/

After these three pieces I had to lay off the antique lighting because I had totally blown my budget at the time. I'm still on the lookout for a perfect deco painted chandelier for my kitchen. I have the shades already, just need the fixture. I'm also on the lookout for the perfect gas/electric hall fixture (single gas and single electric - I already have the antique shades) for my entryway.

Ugh this stuff is SO addicting and I'd put it aside for over a year until now, and now I am back to scanning ebay for shades for my dining room (those are cheap repros on there now) and a fixture for my entry and kitchen. Thanks ;).

My husband and I love love love old lighting. Our trouble has been getting parts at time. Hippo Hardware in Portland has been great about having the right parts. And they have a good selection of cloth covered wiring for lamps. Here in Iowa -- I can find a bright obnoxious gold. But they have brown, black and several other colors.

I have had good luck at flea market and auctions for lighting.

Cathy

I agree with kgwlisa that the quality between originals and reproductions is vastly different. That said, I bought Rejuvenation reproductions for my kitchen: a simple schoolhouse light for the ceiling and a simple sconce for over the sink. They have little detail at all, so in that case, I think the reproductions are fine. They are certainly easier! Also, Rejuvenation offers some unlacquered finishes, so they tarnish and look a bit more believable in time.

My dining room fixture is antique, though I got it from Rejuvenation too. I have antique copper door and window hardware, so I try to find antique lighting in that finish, but it's next to impossible to find, and nobody reproduces it accurately so new is not an option.

Every light fixture in my house was changed out in the 70s or 80s. I don't know which will happen first, but I'm either going to go broke or go crazy by undoing all the damage that previous owners have done to this house!

Oh yeah, rejuvenation definitely has some nice stuff. Also schoolhouse electric for basic period pieces. I bought a simple brushed nickel fixture for an antique shade I had for my mudroom and it looks great. I also bought some black porcelain turtle shade sconces for my bathroom remodel (on clearance for $20 a piece!!!) from them and they are really nice. Black porcelain sconces are few and far between on ebay and even then they are singles or at MOST pairs, not the 4 I needed. Plus in the bathroom I wanted something that was damp rated.

I was just surprised when I 'held up' a real antique next to a rejuvenation sconce (which looked perfectly lovely to me until I compared the two). I'm still considering rejuvenation's mock's crest for my entryway though as I haven't seen an antique with lines I like as much.

BTW if you want to see absolute drop dead gorgeous victorian era (and a little beyond, up to about 1920) lighting, check out the link I'm listing below. Their stuff is exquisite and I think museum quality. I inquired about a chandelier back when I was searching and it was $8500 but they also sent along a similar 'more affordable' $4000 option. YIKES. But the stuff is NOT the kind of stuff you find on ebay, that's for sure. I would call it antique lighting porn. I believe the owners of this store wrote a book on victorian era lighting.

Here is a link that might be useful: Allen's Antique Lighting

Lamp doctor on ebay- he is located in Brooklyn- DH visited the store and says he has gorgeous stuff, he rewires everything and restores the fixtures. Very reputable.

Thanks, everybody, for the tips. I've been searching ebay and they really do have some great finds. :)

igloo: Beautiful chandelier. Would love to see a pic of it in the whole room. :)

Lisa: Your chandeliers are simply stunning. The shades in the second one are exquisite. I just spent 1/2 hour on Allen's Antique Lighting and they actually have a couple of flushmount fixtures that might work perfectly in my hallways (if not on my budget). Also? They are located about 40 minutes from my house, so I wrote to ask if they have shop hours! And I also found some sconces on ebay from Pegan! Thank you SO MUCH for the referrals.

So, for the moment, I'm searching for replacement sconces over my mantel. The ones that are there now are of the cheap-o metal "antique brass" variety. So far, I've found three contenders. Which ones do you think would work best?

My mantel:

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Contender #1:

http://cgi.ebay.com/PAIR-1910-FANCY-BRASS-SCONCES-FRENCH-SHADES_W0QQitemZ120198170770QQihZ002QQcategoryZ63516QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Contender #2:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Early-Brass-Wall-Sconces-1-pair_W0QQitemZ130183313150QQihZ003QQcategoryZ63516QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Contender #3:

http://cgi.ebay.com/STUNNING-RARE-c1900-PR-BRASS-WALL-SCONCE-LIGHT-FIXTURES_W0QQitemZ180197305595QQihZ008QQcategoryZ13868QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I bought these from an antique store about 3 years ago. They are solid brass--very heavy--and not antique--in fact, they are new. But I am concerned that they are not quite the right "look"--maybe too heavy-looking. What do you think?

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Wow, these are nice, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Colonial Sconces

Okay, just a couple more for you to look at, and then I'm done (I promise):

http://cgi.ebay.com/PAIR-1920-COLONIAL-SCONCES-FEDERAL_W0QQitemZ120195912038QQihZ002QQcategoryZ63516QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/PAIR-1930-BRASS-COLONIAL-SCONCES-FEDERAL_W0QQitemZ120199331561QQihZ002QQcategoryZ63516QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/PAIR-1930-DECO-SCONCES-CUSTARD-SHADES_W0QQitemZ110168518839QQihZ001QQcategoryZ63516QQcmdZViewItem

Any thoughts? Anybody? :)

WOW on those Steubin shades!

Organic, are you looking for electric sconces or candle sconces?

I don't care for those deco sconces with the custard shades.
If you favor the candle style sconces, I prefer the double candle ones (there are two pair). If you prefer the drop style I really love the ca1900 with the old "custard" shades (I don't think they are really custard shades though).

So which style calls to you? :)

Well, of course I would recommend the ones that are appropriate to the period and style of your house, which looks to me to be about 1930 colonial revival (love it, by the way), so I would vote for either of the candle sconces. Of the 2, I would pick the one that matches the finish on other hardware in your house (antique brass or polished brass). You can put some little clip shades on them to change the look a bit. The one that's labeled early brass wall sconce would be appropriate too, but I think it's a bit low-key for such a prominent position.

Good luck!