While watching an episode of Feud: Bette and Joan an Oriental Figural lamp in Miss Crawford’s bedroom caught my eye. Where had I seen one before?
In the LA episodes of I Love Lucy we can spot a similar lamp in their LA apartment.
I can just imagine an episode where Lucy brings back this “souvenir” from the movie star’s home.
More details of the lamp in previous post : http://www.50slucy.com/la-at-last-table-lamp.html
In a previous post we looked at Lucy Ricardo’s nautical style wall lamp in the kitchen. This time we take a closer look at the lamp shade. It is rare to get a close look at the design in the on screen scenes but the picture above gives an idea what to look for. The shade is a clip-on shade made of paper with a novelty printed nautical theme.
I found a few examples in different colorways so we can try to guess which color might have been used in the kitchen. The first one below is a blue version, followed by the same pattern in orange and lastly a green one.
The green is certainly a possible choice for the show since we know that the color green is used on several other items in the kitchen – such as the ivy patterned dinnerware and the ivy cruet on the wall rack beneath the lamp. Green elements set off Lucille Ball’s hair color for the studio audience. The orange would also be possble as a compliment to the greens. Perhaps the blue one is the least likely as it would have clashed with the green of the cruet below it.
The shade is a clip-on novelty print paper shade – similar vintage shades can be found on eBay.com that date to the 40’s and 50’s.
Here is a link I use to search for similar shades:
A pair of table lamps similar to Lucy’s LA lamps appear in the moview A Hole in the Head (1959) starring Framk Sinatra and Edward G Robinson. The are seen at either ends of a green sofa. Screen captures below. The neo-classical column lamps in the hollywood regency style have gilt details.
Above is my impression of a couple of contenders for the color of the hobnail chenile bedspreads on I Love Lucy. Previously we identified the make as Morgan Jones “Minuet”. Ads from the 1950’s era give us an idea of the color range but now thanks to an instagram comment from johndalessio we have more clues. Desiu props were re-used over the years and some identical bedspreads have turned up in Bonanza and on The Andy Griffith Show in color. There is a brown color that we saw on Andy Griffith that corresponds to “Sandalwood” in a contemporary ad. And a light green color version of the same bedspread as seen on the screen capture from Bonanza, S2 E33 “Elizabeth, My Love”, near the end of the episode. Either of the bedspreads could have originated in the I Love Lucy series. Those series were made on Desilu sets and used Desilu props. The green version would have been a good choice to set off Lucy’s red hair, dont you think?
Many thanks to johndalessio for providing the research through my my Instagram page
I dont have an exact match yet for the Ricardo’s bedside tripod lamps but similar atomic style tripod cylinder lamps can be found online to create a similar look. Below is an example of a mid century tripod lamp with fibreglass shade on eBay this week:
These nautical wall sconces are on ebay this week – just like the nautical ships wheel wall lamp in Lucy’s kitchen which we looked at in a previous post. They also convert to a table lamp.
After the Ricardo’s move to the bigger apartment we can see a wooden nautical style ships pilot wheel lamp in the kitchen next to the door. I saw a very similar one on eBay and discovered that the arm of the lamp rotates so it can also stand independently as a table lamp with the wheel at it’s base.
The lamp pictured below is marked “Leviton”on the metal section
To see more pictures on the listing on eBay click here
More details here on the eBay listing
CLICK HERE to Find more like this on eBay
I have not seen examples of the lamp shade paired with it on the show. If you have information to share regarding the lampshade please comment below.