1930s Chrome Chase Table/Desk Lamp With French Crystal Glass Shade

Who’s the star of this show — the American Lamp by Chase or the crystal glass shade by one of the premier glass French makers such as Baccarat – beautifully hand-crafted (wheel-cut carvings galore), crystal-clear glass?

The Chase lamp is wonderfully flexible; you can move the shade in any direction, thanks to American ingenuity (see a couple of the last photos for examples of this flexibility). And, it’s solid brass under that chrome finish, which means that it won’t rust and that the chrome will stay in good condition. There are several pinhead-sized dents in the base as well as a variety of shallow and insignificant scratches — see the close-up of the base — but otherwise it’s in good shape (the finish is certainly presentable but likewise certainly not pristine; you’ll see subtle compromise to the chrome finish throughout, the result of “atmospheric debris”).

I’ll call the French shade the “star of the show.” I mean, anybody can find a Chase lamp, but who has such a fabulous French shade to put on it? And this one, as you can see, just rocks. In pristine, perfect condition, too! It’s probably from the same period as the lamp base, perhaps even earlier.

So here you have a nice combination of practical (the flexibility of the Chase base) and enchanting (the crystal glass shade).

Measurements: about 14 inches high. The weighted base is 5 3/4 in diameter and the measurement from front to back (as seen in the first photo) is about 10 inches. By the way, I’ve rewired the lamp and you can use any size bulb you want.