1970s Lamps and Home Décor

HK sends me a matched pair of lamps. One is a table lamp, and the other a swag chandelier – both designed in a swirling compilation of many styles to create so much grandeur that they cannot be anything but the embodiment of the 1970s. Seeing the photos, I imagine these lamps’ ‘friends’ – objects that might have accompanied them in their original 1970s décor home; the carpeted bathroom, avocado green and harvest gold tile counter tops, red linoleum flooring, vertical blinds, popcorn ceilings, huge silk floral arrangements, and the Mediterranean kitchen. Be prepared, because before we know it… the ‘70s will be back. 

There were three separate stylistic strains trending in the 70’s: 1) late hippie plastic colorful décor; 2) artisan handmade objects with naturalistic designs (think raw-looking pottery and tree hugger furniture); and 3) classic overstated middle-class glamour. HK’s table lamp and the matching swag lamp fall into the latter category. They are vintage cast metal made to look antique, and the table lamp has a 36” shaft that culminates in a slag glass hexagonal shade of alternating brown and white glass (slag is a medium we associate with the Arts and Crafts Period in lighting). There are elements of the Gothic, elements of Renaissance and Baroque revivals, elements of Louis XV design, a smattering of Italian Baronial – various looks from decorative periods in human history that scream grandeur. The lamps are meant to evoke historical objects that are great treasures, which of course they are not – but they try, which is why I love them. The same 1970s urge that made Liberace’s mansion famous makes these lamps something to smile about. 

I can still see Mrs. Martorella’s living room with her aspirations of grandeur in Deerfield, Illinois, where I grew up in the 1970s. She had that white marble coffee table which weighed 1,000 pounds. The base was a mix of Baroque angels and Classical Corinthian columns, and other non-period elements carved in wood (or was it the cheaper medium, plaster?) and painted cream. It dominated the red velvet sofa that was encased in plastic. Illinois can be a hot place in August, and her daughter Debbie and I often stuck to the sofa when we could sneak in to admire the setting, so different from my house, which was Ethan Allen. Nonetheless, we were chased out of the living room as it was for exclusive guests at cocktail hour. My mom once went to a cocktail party in that room and gushed over the amounts of silverplated hostess accoutrements. Mrs. Martorella had crystal lamp bases with silk shades purchased in 1972, and, similar to HK’s pair of lamps, a table lamp that had a faux ‘antique’ cast metal base – sprayed bright gold – topped by a fake Waterford style cut glass shade. To complete the picture, the shaft of the lamp had those little wires which supported a multitude of clear glass crystal drops on a chain. Even the ash trays weighed 15 pounds and looked Baronial.

HK’s lamps have a multi acanthus leaf design in cast metal that is painted regal gold and then ‘antiqued’ with black paint. The amusing shades are of colored glass in six sides of brown-and-white slag, under which (just to be more opulent) are hidden a six-branch candelabra with six small bulbs. Although they are a confused little presence, the lamps are trying hard to be BIG LAMPS, and if you lived through the 1970s you will recognize that a swag chandelier was always somewhere nearby in your neighborhood. 

What is this style? Unfortunately, on such sites as Etsy, HK’s lamps are described as Hollywood Regency, an incorrect designation. The design term Hollywood Regency was inspired by Hollywood’s golden era, 1920 to 1950, which was influenced by the purely geometrical style of the late 1700s Neoclassical period and melded with the 1930s Art Deco (primarily French) style, also geometric. Hollywood Regency has one element in common with HK’s lamps; it was and is, a maximalist style. But distinct from HK’s lamps, true Hollywood Regency enjoyed only the best and most expensive materials. Instead of saying these lamps are Gothic Baronial, or Hollywood Regency, I call this style Middle Class Glamour of the 1970s. HK should know there is a real market for this style. Those 70s-era brass-and-crystal-studded raindrop pole lamps and table lamps, such as those he has found, are offered for $200 and up, presumably by sellers much younger than me who never heard of Liberace.