Charleton Mantel Lusters, I love lucy, I love Lucy Props, Piano

We Love Lucy’s Charleton Mantel Lusters

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I love Lucy props: Charleton Mantel Lustres on the Piano
I love Lucy props: Charleton Mantel Lustres on the Piano

Peter writes :

The pair of mantle lusters or lustres are found on top of the piano. As you know they are seen practically from the beginning and up until the Ricardos move to the country. I actually was able to purchase a set identical to the ones used on the show, so I’m selling the other set I have. The only difference is the color. Here’s the listing: http://www.ebay.com/itm/161471370240

IMG_7673lucys mantel lustersThe ones on the show were a green color with silver painted ovals on the crown and base. Attached is a photo of what the real ones looked like. Also, one of them has a sticker on the inside that says Charleton.

Lusters

 What little research I’ve done on these is that they were often found in homes of high society. Almost like a status symbol, which is interesting because they made it appear as though the Ricardo’s were just average Joes.  Of course some lusters  are way more extravagant, whereas these are fairly plain. They are often referred to as “mantle lusters” because they can usually be found on top of the fireplace mantle to reflect the light from the hanging crystals.”
Peter is offering these similar Mantel Lusters on eBay
Peter is offering these similar Mantel Lusters on eBay

Lusters 3Thanks again to Peter for sharing  a great find with us.

The Charleton line of decorated ceramics was produced by Abels, Wasserberg & Co. (AWCO) from the 1940’s. They
purchased undecorated items (blanks), from various glass and ceramic manufacturers and employed a team of decorators who hand decorated the pieces with designs of flowers, fruit,
landscapes, and other patterns and also decorated china and glass items for Fenton and other lines.  To identify the Charleton range, an embossed label when present indicates “Charleton Hand Decorated” plus a hand written serial/stock number, and in print the letters AWCO as seen in the example pictured above.

mantel luster on the right
A photo from an exhibit you can see to the right a glimpse of a mantel luster prop like the one on “I Love Lucy” but with shorter crystals.
More props from I love lucy
Update: The luster in the picture from Flickr is an actual original prop from “I Love Lucy” per comment below.

Click Here for Mantel Lusters currently available on eBay

Reference:

2 thoughts on “We Love Lucy’s Charleton Mantel Lusters”

  1. Great story and nice to know that the ‘Ricardo’ prop-alikes are out there to find. I have the same pair in the pea green that I purchased years ago and they have the same teardrop crystals.

    The shot you show at the bottom was from an exhibit that a friend of mine put on years ago in San Francisco. The cool thing is that these ARE the actual prop lustres that were purchased in LA, years ago in the same neighborhood as RKO/Paramount. They were located in an antique store window and my friend recognized them instantly. He had to wait another day to inquire about them and with careful detective work, realized that they had the proper markings on the bottom, from the prop house. After they were purchased, he was fortunate enough to locate some the crew members from “I Love Lucy” and they were verified and authenticated.

    Now the only ‘fly in the ointment’ were the prisms. These lustres were apparently used on other TV shows over the years such as “Little House on the Prairie” and while they were one in the same, the actual prisms were replaced with rectangular, faceted ones. The originals must have broken as they were passed around a lot for years on the original set and props tend to break and get repaired. If you look closely at several seasons of “I Love Lucy”, you can see that some of the teardrop prisms were missing on particular episodes. This all seems logical and again, while the actual pair of lustres have been saved and collected, the original prisms are long gone.

    Happy Collecting!

    1. Thank you for commenting with such great information on the lustres! How great that the originals survived and that your friend was even able to find anyone to authenticate them!! Too bad pictures on flickr are not good quality.

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