Standard Lamps, Standing Lamps
Ideas for furnishing with standard lamps, that is, standing or floor lamps.
Independent lights, such as candlesticks and lamp standards, suggest endless lighting arrangements. Candlesticks in brass or silver or Sheffield plate can be wired for electric light very easily, and very effective table lights can be made from modern painted candlesticks in wood. Then there are carved and gilded altar candlesticks that may be adapted without difficulty and that possess distinction and interest. Such candlesticks are charming on a dressing-table, and the larger type, if used singly, can be placed on a walnut pedestal, and they prove far more effective than any floor standard.
Tall standards should always have a firm base to stand on, and a turned wooden column with a circular, lead-weighted base is the least likely to be pushed over. Carved and fluted standards on claw and ball feet in mahogany, or plain designs covered in damask, or painted and decorated, may be used in corners and angles of a room ; but a floor standard must be well suited with a shade, otherwise it suggests ungainly height if the shade is too small, and a squat caricature of an extinguished candle if it is too large.
Tripods holding a silk or glass bowl from which lamps cast their light upwards can be used in places where reflected lighting is desirable. As the lamps lying inside the bowl allow a proportion of their light to shine through the material, the result is a very soft, subdued radiance, particularly suitable for halls and landings. Frosted or tinted glass bowls are more practical, being simpler to clean, for exposed silk collects dust rather badly.
