What kind of light is most common in this category?

Table lamps. The word "lamp" appears in nearly half of all titles, and "table lamp" in a good share of those, with chrome the metal named most often. After table and desk lamps come wall lights and sconces, then ceiling lights, plafonniers and pendants. Chandeliers and standard lamps make up smaller runs.

Are these lights really from the 1920s and 1930s?

Overwhelmingly, yes. Of the listings with a clean year, the 1930s take more than a thousand and the 1920s nearly three hundred, leaving very little in the 1940s, 1910s or 1900s. A handful of entries read Edwardian or 19th century. Set against electric fittings, those look like loose use of the date field rather than dated objects.

Why are so many sold in pairs?

Wall lights and sconces were fitted in matching positions around a room, so they came in twos, threes and fours and often survive that way. One in five titles here describes a pair. Beyond pairs, the archive holds sets of three and four, a six-branch chandelier, and suites of fittings sold as one lot.

What is a plafonnier?

A shallow bowl or dish shade that hangs close to the ceiling or sits flush against it. The term turns up throughout these listings, mostly for French fittings. It sits alongside pendants, which hang on a longer drop, and chandeliers, which carry branches or tiers of glass.

Which materials appear most in Art Deco lighting?

Chrome leads, named more often than any other metal. Glass follows in its crystal, opaline, frosted and opalescent forms, then Bakelite and Catalin, brass and copper, spelter and bronze. Marble, onyx and alabaster show up as bases and shades, and oak, walnut, sycamore and satinwood appear on the standard and floor lamps.

Do these lights carry maker's names?

Rarely. The vast majority of titles name no maker at all, and the category runs largely on anonymous forms repeated in different metals and glass. Where a glasshouse or designer is named or attributed, those pieces sit above the unnamed run of the same shapes. Pirouette is the name that recurs in these listings. Signatures and stamps are not a general feature of the group.

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Art Deco Lights

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Electric light fittings for the home in the geometric style of the 1920s and 1930s, made for every position in a room: ceiling, wall, table, desk and floor.