Today, walking around Grand Central I was reminded once again that the late Victorians had a different attitude towards light bulbs than we do today. To them an exposed light bulb looked stylish and modern, to us it’s a symbol of decrepitude and poorness. We hide light bulbs behind shades and diffusers. The Victorians liked to show them off. Here is a fine example – an expensive-looking gilded chandelier in Grand Central topped off with exposed light bulbs. You can also see examples of these in IRT subway stations.
Victorian kitchens often had the simplest of light fixtures – a light bulb on a pretty woven cord, like this one sold by Rejuvenation Hardware. The also sell an amazingly cool looking replica Edison light bulb to go with it. My own kitchen is Art Deco-styled, but I was very tempted to get one of these.
Victorians also had a different attitude towards kitchens, and I absolutely agree with them. Every time that I hear on “This Old House” how kitchen is the most important room, kitchen is the center of the house, how the owners plan to entertain in the kitchen – I shudder. How can a nation so overweight make an altar out of the room where it is destroying itself? I am an overweight glutton myself (especially when depressed), but I certainly would not want to build my house around a kitchen. The Victorians had the right notion – a kitchen is a utility room. Like the laundry. Or the butler’s room. Or the carriage house.
Also, while we are on the subject of unusual light bulb – there’s a company that sells odor removing light bulbs. They claim that the Titanium Dioxide coating illuminated by fluorescent light is somehow breaking down odors. I hear that it works, so I ordered a couple for the room where the catbox is located. I’ll let you know how it’ll work.
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Well, it makes perfect sense to me, what with exposed lightbulbs and plumbing. Back then, it was really new, and if you were rich enough to have it in your house, you wanted to flaunt it. Like when iPods first came out, everyone who had one always had it out, and no one put covers and skins on them until later, because no one wants to hide the newest thing when they have it.
I also have used the titanium dioxide light bulbs. They really do seem to work well. What was our experience with them? Did you try one yet?
If people spent more time in the kitchen, they would probably spend more time cooking healthier food. Americans are getting fat eating Hot Pockets in front of the television, not socializing in the kitchen.
My family is Irish background and it seems all my relatives have this thig about sitting around in the kitchen. They’ll drink tea, listen to the radio, even play cd’s. I’ve never understood why the kitchen seems to be the main gathering place. Many of my friends with irish families have joked about the same thing with me….?! :)
“To them an exposed light bulb looked stylish and modern, to us it’s a symbol of decrepitude and poorness.”
If you can find contemporary pictures of that fixture, it probably had very stylish SHADES. One I saw had L.C. Tiffany art glass shades. Some slug of a workman might have liberated them, modern replacement bulbs didn’t fit (like modern people) inside them, or one of four broke and couldn’t be (cheaply) replaced.
“Victorians also had a different attitude towards kitchens,”
If you saw the PBS “1900 House”, you would know that the kitchen was for the Hired Help, not family, and therefore generally didn’t need too much splendor.
regards, Bob
Good point. Also the Subzero-Viking-Giant-Kitchen yuppies are usually not overly obese.
I severely doubt that there were any shades. First of all there were hundreds of these in Grand Central, in one bulb and four bulb and chandeliers with hundreds of lamp variations. Not one shade in sight. I doubt there was much liberation going on during that major restoration in the nineties. Exposed light bulbs were sexy back then. Early Victorians felt the same way about indoor plumbing – you could see tons of exposed pipes in very lavish bathrooms.
It’s true about servants occupying the kitchens. But later Deco era apartments, even the modest ones like mine, stressed the importance of the living room and the bedroom, and deemphasized the kitchen and bathroom.
I am in the light bulb business and must agree with the writer. If you were going for the “vintage” or “antique” look the hanging antique Light Bulbs are very sexy and stylish.