Over on our Instagram page of late, we’ve been highlighting our tripod lights. They’re very popular with our customers online and in the shop. What you may not realise is that many of our tripod floor lamp range are exclusive to us. We source top-quality wooden tripods, we source the hard-to-find vintage cargo lights – and thanks to our ingenious in-house engineer, Clive, we can put the two together for you! This generally involves lathe-work and is a service few can offer.
Why do we love tripod lighting?
They look amazing! I remember attending a vintage fair back in the early days, and the fair organiser telling me: “Put your ‘Ferrari’ at the front of your stand.” Our ‘Ferrari’ was obviously a massive vintage nautical cargo light on a heavy teak tripod, which drew lighting lovers like moths!
We’re also salvaging these old lights, nautical and theatrical, from being simply destroyed. We’re effectively recycling serious history – and we love that. These venerable creations, which once lit up a storm-churned ship’s deck or an esteemed theatre stage, are now warm and snug in someone’s home. And they’ll go on forever!
Plus they’re increasingly (very) rare. The design of these classic cargo lights and spotlights took care and ingenuity. In 50 years time, no one will be selling vintage 2020s LED lights.
How do we restore them?
Our vintage tripod lamps are always in need of some serious TLC before we can send them off to a new home. We’ve partnered with a polisher whose work never ceases to stun us, who also strips off the original (generally well-worn) paint scheme. Then it’s over to Clive, who can tidy up the metalwork as well as refurbishing – usually requiring full replacement – the internal electrics.
Much of his work, you won’t even notice. For instance: several of our large vintage nautical cargo lights used giant Edison-screw light bulb fittings. The required G40 light bulbs are hard to find – so Clive fits an adaptor, which means you can use the standard E27 bulbs.
Finally, Clive pops them onto a tripod – which makes the job sound a lot easier than it is!
Our tripod lighting, along with other vintage light products are available online and in our showroom at 14 Lostwithiel Street, Fowey, Cornwall PL23 1BD.
