#candlestick lamp

[raannt]

San Francisco Living Room Home Bar Mid-sized traditional enclosed living room idea with medium-tone wood flooring, brown walls, a standard fireplace, a stone fireplace, and no television.

[mlovesdinosaurs]

Dining Room - Traditional Dining Room Example of a mid-sized classic dark wood floor enclosed dining room design with orange walls

[mayugene]

Enclosed in Dallas An illustration of a medium-sized, enclosed dining room with dark wood floors and orange walls.

[vintagehomecollection]

A pineapple lamp, a 19th-century bird print, and an assortment of color-related objects are arranged on a desk in the living room.

The Los Angeles House, 1995

[wildbeautifuldamned]

Meissen 1924 Eagle And Woman Design Candlestand Interior Figurine Antique EBAY camera.hokkaido.japan

[listeningliszts]

You mothn’t have a Clue…..that the name of the game was murder.

[jovaniclark]

Traditional Entry Charlotte An illustration of a mid-sized traditional entryway with pink walls and a dark wood floor

[reedwarren]

Traditional Entry Charlotte An illustration of a mid-sized traditional entryway with pink walls and a dark wood floor

[lifeasaleowife]

Thrifted Lamp to Large Candlestick Holder

I turned a thrift store lamp into a pretty, large candlestick holder that I'm using for Halloween, but you can make yours to fit your decor!

[factcheckingthefords]

Mudroom - Contemporary Entry White walls and a white front door are featured in this idea for a mid-sized contemporary ceramic tile entryway.

[rebelsocialitenyc]

Beach Style Living Room Atlanta

Inspiration for a large, enclosed, formal living room remodel with blue walls, no fireplace, and no television in a coastal style.

[londynwatson]

Living Room Enclosed in San Francisco Inspiration for a large transitional enclosed medium tone wood floor and brown floor living room remodel with white walls, a standard fireplace and a tile fireplace

[belinda-amy]

Loft-Style Los Angeles Inspiration for a huge transitional loft-style dark wood floor living room remodel with a bar, gray walls, a standard fireplace, a stone fireplace and no tv

[petermorwood]

More on pre-electricity lighting.

Interesting to see this one pop up again after nearly two years - courtesy of @dduane, too! :->

*****

After experiencing a couple more storm-related power cuts since my original post, as well as a couple of after-dark garden BBQs, I've come to the conclusion that C.J. Cherryh puts far too much emphasis on "how dark things were pre-electric light".

For one thing eyes adjust, dilating in dim light to gather whatever illumination is available. Okay, if there's none, there's none - but if there's some, human eyes can make use of it, some better or just faster than others. They're the ones with "good night vision".

Think, for instance, of how little you can see of your unlit bedroom just after you've turned off the lights, and how much more of it you can see if you wake up a couple of hours later.

There's also that business of feeling your way around, risking breaking your neck etc. People get used to their surroundings and, after a while, can feel their way around a familiar location even in total darkness with a fair amount of confidence.

Problems arise when Things Aren't Where They Should Be (or when New Things Arrive) and is when most trips, stumbles, hacked shins and stubbed toes happen, but usually - Lego bricks and upturned UK plugs aside - non-light domestic navigation is incident-free.

*****

Here are a couple of pics from one of those BBQs: one candle and a firepit early on, then the candle, firepit and an oil lamp much later, all much more obvious than DD's iPad screen.

Though I remain surprised at how well my phonecam was handling this low light, my own unassisted eyes were doing far better. For instance, that area between the table and the firepit wasn't such an impenetrable pool of darkness as it appears in the photo.

I see (hah!) no reason why those same Accustomed Eyes would have any more difficulty with candles or oil lamps as interior lighting, even without the mirrors or reflectors in my previous post.

With those, and with white interior walls, things would be even brighter. There's a reason why so many reconstructed period buildings in Folk Museums etc. are (authentically) whitewashed not just outside but inside as well. It was cheap, had disinfectant qualities, and was a reflective surface. Win, win and win.

*****

All right, there were no switches to turn on a light. But there was no need for what C.J. describes as stumbling about to reach the fire, because there were tinderboxes and, for many centuries before them, flint and steel. Since "firesteels" have been heraldic charges since the 1100s, the actual tool must have been in use for even longer.

Tinderboxes were fire-starter sets with flint, steel and "tinder" all packed into (surprise!) a box. The tinder was easily lit ignition material, often "charcloth", fabric baked in an airtight jar or tin which would now start to glow just from a spark.

They're mentioned in both "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings". Oddly enough, "Hobbit" mentions matches in a couple of places, but I suspect that's a carry-over from when it was just a children's story, not part of the main Legendarium.

Tinderboxes could be simple, just a basic flint-and-steel kit with some tinder for the sparks to fall on...

...or elaborate like this one, with a fancy striker, charcloth, kindling material and even wooden "spills" (long splinters) to transfer flame to a candle or the kindling...

This tinderbox even doubles as a candlestick, complete with a snuffer which would have been inside along with everything else.

Here's a close-up of the striker box with its inner and outer lids open:

What looks like a short pencil with an eraser is actually the striker. A bit of tinder or charcloth would have been pulled through that small hole in the outer lid, which was then closed.

There was a rough steel surface on the lid, and the striker was scraped along it, like so:

This was done for a TV show or film, so the tinder was probably made more flammable with, possibly, lighter fuel. That would be thoroughly appropriate, since a Zippo or similar lighter works on exactly the same principle.

A real-life version of any tinderbox would usually just produce glowing embers needing blown on to make a flame, which is shown sometimes in movies - especially as a will-it-light-or-won't-it? tension build - but is usually a bit slow and non-visual for screen work.

*****

There were even flintlock tinderboxes which worked with the same mechanism as those on firearms. Here's a pocket version:

Here are a couple of bedside versions, once again complete with a candlestick:

And here are three (for home defence?) with a spotlight candle lantern on one side and a double-trigger pistol on the other.

Pull one trigger to light the candle, pull the other trigger to fire the gun.

What could possibly go wrong? :-P

*****

Those pistol lanterns, magnified by lenses, weren't just to let their owner see what they were shooting at: they would also have dazzled whatever miscreant was sneaking around in the dark, irises dilated to make best use of available glimmer.

Swordsmen both good and bad knew this trick too, and various fight manuals taught how to manage a thumb-shuttered lamp encountered suddenly in a dark alley.

There's a sword-and-lantern combat in the 1973 "Three Musketeers" between Michael York (D'Artagnan) and Christopher Lee (Rochefort), which was a great idea.

Unfortunately it failed in execution because the "Hollywood Darkness" which let viewers see the action, wasn't dark enough to emphasise the hazards / advantages of snapping the lamps open and shut.

This TV screencap (can't get a better one, the DVD won't run in a computer drive) shows what I mean.

In fact, like the photos of the BBQ, this image - and entire fight - looks even brighter through "real eyes" than with the phonecam. Just as there can be too much dark in a night scene, there can also be too much light.

*****

One last thing I found when assembling pics for the post were Folding Candle-lanterns.

They were used from about the mid-1700s to the later 20th century (Swiss Army ca. 1978) as travel accessories and emergency equipment, and IMO - I've Made A Note - they'd fit right into a fantasy world whose tech level was able to make them.

The first and last are reproductions: this one is real, from about 1830.

The clear part was mica - a transparent mineral which can be split into thin flexible sheets - while others use horn / parchment, though both of these are translucent rather than transparent. Regardless, all were far less likely to break than glass.

One or two inner surfaces were usually tin, giving the lantern its own built-in reflector, and tech-level-wise, tin as a shiny or decorative finish has been used since Roman times.

I'm pretty sure that top-of-the-line models could also have been finished with their own matching, maybe even built-in, tinderboxes.

And if real ones didn't, fictional ones certainly could. :->

*****

Yet more period lighting stuff here, including flintlock alarm clocks (!)

[vinceaddams]

I love love love art nouveau decor but I do have one complaint about it, which is that whenever there's a human figure incorporated into the design it's always a young lady, and I think there ought to be more of a gender balance.

Where are the lamps and candlesticks shaped like men artfully draped in long strips of fabric? The fancy little man-with-insect-wings pendants??

[celia-cytus]

𝗚𝗶𝗳𝘁 - Hallway Console | Candlestick Table Lamp | Art Frame

■ ᴅᴏᴡɴʟᴏᴀᴅ - (ɢᴏᴏɢʟᴇ)

□ ᴄᴏɴꜱᴏʟᴇ 4 ꜱᴡᴀᴛᴄʜᴇꜱ

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■ ɴᴏᴛᴇ:

✻ʜɪɢʜ ᴘᴏʟʏɢᴏɴ ↓ ɢʀᴀᴘʜɪᴄꜱ Qᴜᴀʟɪᴛʏ ɴᴇᴇᴅꜱ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴀᴅᴊᴜꜱᴛᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ʜɪɢʜ ᴏʀ ᴜʟᴛʀᴀ ✻2ᴋ ᴛᴇxᴛᴜʀᴇ ✻ᴛʜᴇ ꜱʟᴏᴛꜱ ᴡɪʟʟ ᴀʙꜱᴏʀʙ ɪᴛᴇᴍꜱ. ɪꜰ ɪᴛ ɪꜱ ɪɴᴄᴏɴᴠᴇɴɪᴇɴᴛ ꜰᴏʀ ʏᴏᴜ, ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴀɴ ᴛʀʏ ᴛᴏ ᴜꜱᴇ ꜱ4ꜱ ᴛᴏ ᴅᴇʟᴇᴛᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱʟᴏᴛꜱ. ɪ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴜꜱᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ɴᴏ ꜱʟᴏᴛ ᴠᴇʀꜱɪᴏɴ ʙᴇᴄᴀᴜꜱᴇ ᴏʙᴊᴇᴄᴛꜱ ʟɪᴋᴇ ꜱᴛᴏʀᴀɢᴇ ᴄᴀʙɪɴᴇᴛꜱ ᴜꜱᴜᴀʟʟʏ ʜᴏʟᴅ ᴀ ʟᴏᴛ ᴏꜰ ɪᴛᴇᴍꜱ, ᴄᴏᴍʙɪɴᴇᴅ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛ.ᴏ.ᴏ.ʟ.(ᴏʀ ᴛʀʏ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴍᴇᴛʜᴏᴅ), ɪᴛ ᴍᴀᴋᴇꜱ ᴘʟᴀᴄɪɴɢ ɪᴛᴇᴍꜱ ᴇᴀꜱɪᴇʀ. ✻ɪᴛᴇᴍꜱ ᴄᴀɴɴᴏᴛ ʙᴇ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇᴅ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱʟᴏᴛꜱ, ᴍᴀʏ ʙᴇ ꜱʟᴏᴛꜱ ᴛʏᴘᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ɪᴛᴇᴍ ɪꜱ ɪɴᴄᴏʀʀᴇᴄᴛ. ɪᴛ ᴄᴀɴ ᴀʟꜱᴏ ʙᴇ ᴄʜᴀɴɢᴇᴅ ᴜꜱɪɴɢ ꜱ4ꜱ.

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