In the spisode “Lucy Gets Homesick in Italy”, after climbing the 4 flights up to get to her room in the Italian hotel, dubbed “the bridal suite” Lucy sits down to recuperate.
Next to her is a table with a unique, antique French Brass candlestick sitting there.
(Odd that it seems to be French and not Italian.)
The prisms were taken off and the top part is slightly different, but looks very close to this Girandole, complete with base.
When Lucy promises Ricky in the episode “Lucy Goes to Monte Carlo” that she and Ethel will not go to the Casino, she picks up
a Michelin PARIS guidebook to find a restaurant. Of course she picks “Le Grille” that just HAPPENS to be IN the casino.
While maybe not the exact book, these are very close:
In the I Love Lucy Season 5 episode Paris at Last Lucy sets out to explore Paris and “discovers” an artist whose paintings she hopes will become valuable some day. However Lucy’s meets another kind of artist – a con artist. The painting Lucy buys is a view of Notre Dame Cathedral from the Left Bank. Of course this scene is filmed in the studio, however assuming the “artist” is painting the scene before him, this places Lucy and the artist Charpentier in the vicinity of Quai Saint Michel. The building with the awning to the right of the painting is Hotel Le Notre-Dame SAINT-MICHEL which I recognized immediately because it is where I stayed when I was in Paris a few weeks ago. It is an interesting boutique hotel in a listed Paris building, with interior decor by Christian Lacroix. It’s a great location for exploring the area and we had a view of Notre Dame from the room and a Brasserie on the ground floor under the awning. Just around the corner is the famous Shakespeare & Co bookstore.
Similar Scene by French artist Eugène Galien-Laloue for sale on eBay or download from Wikimedia HERE
Incidentally, Lucy meets the artist in front of the American Express office, a film clip of American Express at 11 Rue Scribe, Paris, is used to establish the scene. This is approx 2 miles away from the Notre Dame location the artist is supposed to be painting.
The American Express building at 11 Rue Scribe, Paris, is now home to a Nespresso Cafe and is no longer an American Express office.
In the Season 5 episode Lucy Meets the Queen the Ricardos and the Mertzes arrive in London, and Lucy and Ethel go to the palace in hopes of seeing the Queen. Ethel is seen referring to a copy of the Britain 1955 edition of Fodor’s Modern Guides – Lucy is hoping to catch a glimpse of the Queen but gets distracted when she tries in vain to make one of the palace guards smile, and as a result she misses her chance when the Queen does come out.
The guide book Ethel refers to is titled Britain 1955 from the Fodor’s Modern Guides series – Fodor’s Modern Guides, Inc was founded in 1949 to provide practical information for tourists, with updated yearly editions . For that era, this was new concept in guides books which became essential for the 1950’s traveler.
Find Fodor’s Modern Guides at amazon
Currently there appears to be a copy at :
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=8649948430
Find Fodor’s Modern Guides on eBay
In another famous episode, “The Young Fans” (Season 1, 2/25/52) where teenagers, Peggy and Arthur have crushes on the Ricardos, Lucy and Ricky take action and dress up as octogenarians. At one point, Lucy hands ‘old Ricky’ a toy drum to show Peggy that he is indeed Ricky Ricardo.
It appears that Lucy actually hands it to him upside down, but that’s how the prop was sitting waiting for her to use.
The toy drum was made by the Ohio Art Company (still in business) and looks to be vintage 1930’s or 1940’s by the artwork.
See Ohio Art Drums on Etsy (US)
The Ohio Art Company was founded in 1908. Based in Bryan, Ohio, the company is known for toys including the Etch A Sketch, and Nanoblock. Their Diversified Products segment makes custom metal lithography products for food containers such as food tins, enclosures, DVD cases, and nostalgic signs.
Credit: Special Thanks to Rick for this post.
In the “Breaking The Lease” episode (Season 1, 2/11/52) the Ricardos and the Mertzes have a sing-along very late at night and
toast each other to their wonderful friendship. (Of course, this is BEFORE they have their big fight.)
The glass mugs that are being used look like they might be vintage Siesta Ware. These amber colored mugs featured chunky wooden handles held on by gold tone metal bands.
They seem to be readily available on Ebay ( Click here for a selection)
and also on Etsy (US)
I also see some on Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Vintage-Siesta-Ware-Wooden-Handles/dp/B007JWROBA
Credit: Special Thanks to Rick for this post.
Most of the bedroom figurines on the shelf over the beds in the I Love Lucy bedroom set were Made in Japan porcelain imports. This courting couple pair of figurines were chalkware and they were usually not placed side by side on the shelf which made it a bit more difficult to find them. Chalkware is more vulnerable to the passing of time being made of plaster/chalk so pieces can be scarce.
Here is a pair I found on eBay recently. The woman is holding her flounced skirts in a curtsy and the man has a dog beside him. Notice the dark gold band around the base, which helps to identify them. To find a similar pair search on eBay or Etsy or Bonanza – search for “chalkware courting couple” or “chalkware victorian” or “chalkware colonial”
http://www.50slucy.com/ricardos-bookshelf-masks-of-west-africa.html – new picture added courtesy of Rick: scan of the page from the book Ricky is looking at.
Strictly speaking a prop is only a prop if the actor holds/uses it on stage or screen, other items that appear on set are called “set dressing”. Arguably, the most used props on I Love Lucy were the cigarette lighters. The Zippo Lady Bradford table lighter is one we see a lot of, usually it is placed on the coffee table as seen above.
A quick search on eBay today produced this vintage Zippo Lady Bradford table lighter Click here to see the listing.
Ref: http://www.zippo.co.uk/subpages.php?mod=starRole
This is a pair of Charleton porcelain mantel lustres on eBay this week made by the same company that made the pair on I Love Lucy. The shape is identical except for the hanging crystals but the decoration is different. 
The pair on I Love Lucy had the pink roses but were painted a pea green color and the oval shapes had a mirrored finish. I found a similar white pair to the ones pictured above so I got porcelain paint and mirrored foil to repaint them in the style of the I Love Lucy pair. I have been putting off the task but one of these days I will get started and post my progress on the blog.
See previous post about the original pair of lusters on I Love Lucy
