Posts by Madison Kirkman

From a Single Photo of the interior of the Denver & Rio Grande Pullman Car #470 and from this single catalog page, I was able to replicate 2 matching chandeliers about as accurately as I could without having an original in hand. Thankfully these lamps share some common parts with others, but some parts of this lamp had to be artistically modeled from scratch using the limited source material. This included the legs, the center tube shade master ring, and shade holder arms, as well as the shade arms that branch off of the legs. The crossarms (which is the unified oil tank burner assembly,) the shade holders themselves, and the draft tube pans as common with other lamps, and were able to be simply copied or sourced. Pulling all of this together, polishing all of the brass, and sourcing original railroad slant shades was quite a bit of effort, but the lamps were completed and are the center piece of the restored Narrow Gauge Pullman Sleeper Car at the Cumbres & Toltec Railroad. This is the hardest restoration/replication I have completed to date, and I am perfectly happy with the level of accuracy we achieved. The legs are a dead match artistic, even with a scrutinous eye. Contact us if you are interested in Custom Functional Replicas or similar. It is our specialty.

The Jewelry of the Steam Locomotive. Jewelry is relatively small and detailed, and meant to Awe the Viewer. I think this fits that category. Nickel Plated Solid Brass, Solid Color Red Glass, and completely hand built in the United States, this authentically styled fully operatable oil lamp is designed for use lighting the Brake Gauges in a Steam Locomotive. The crown is stamped copper made based on originals. The Body is formed Sheet Metal by a local tinsmith. The oil fount and burner are also solid brass and lock in with threads on the base to prevent movement. The Lamp has a threaded bottom to lock it into place in the cab of the locomotive. It is all soldered together and finished by us here at Luxmen Lighting, Contact us if you are interested in Custom Functional Replicas or similar.

This is one of the rarest and most desirable Conductor’s Lanterns that exist, the Blake Patent Wristlet Lantern, patented 1852, and made to rest on your forearm while taking tickets to allow the use of both hands. Very few survive, both because it was a little quirky and because in a fixed globe lantern, if the globe breaks, you threw it away. It wasn’t until William Westlake invented a removeable globe lantern that the globe was seen as replaceable if it broke. This was an intensive restoration, and somewhat stressful especially when soldering the globe guard and the heat was absorbing into the edge of the globe both top and bottom. Careful heat control, and taking time to let the heat spread prevented temperature shock. The lantern was pulled apart, dings and damage that could be amended were. globe guard was straightened and radii trued up. Numerous other little jobs were done to clean up this piece to how it would have looked straight from the factory. If you have antiques that need similar work done, we can handle a range of crafts and methods to restore your lamp or lantern or even other antiques. Contact us with photos etc. for a quote. Replicas of most any lamp can also be commissioned.

This Handlan #125 River Channel Lamp marked “U.S.L.H.S.” (United States Light House Service) was missing its fount, had very rough paint, was electrified at one point with a junction box welded into the exhaust chimney in the top of the lamp. The customer, who has had this lamp in the family for decades, requested a full restoration of the lamp. There was other damage, other missing parts, all replaced, and I felt a nice touch would be a reed glass mirror on the rear, even if it’s not 100% authentic. It’s completely removable so no damage is done to the lamp with that addition. The lamp has a vintage burner the correct size. I added a hanger to the burner, so a 5/8″ wick can run along side the 7/8″ to help with capillary action for the taller than normal fount. To smooth over the damage and roughness, after existing paint was lightly sanded, and rust removed. 4 layers of primer were applied, sanded between coats, then 4 layers of color matched high gloss paint were air gunned, then 2 coats of clear gloss. If you have antiques that need similar work done, we can handle a range of crafts and methods to restore your lamp or lantern. Contact us with photos etc. for a quote. Replicas of most any lamp can also be commissioned.