It Looked Useless… Until I Turned It Over

Back When Light Was More Than Just Flipping a Switch

Blown-glass oil lamps aren’t just pretty, they’re functional art, and they plunge you right into the “good old days” mood. I mean can you imagine illuminating your home with glass quite this fragile and beautiful? No LEDs. No dimmer switches. Nothing but a little flame, wobbling in a hand-blown piece of glass that I imagine was made by someone who gave a damn about what they made. This thing I found? It was gold, with a spiral pattern wrapped around it like a candy cane with class. The glass was ever so slightly uneven, in that cute way that says this wasn’t made by a machine. It seemed like something that belonged in a cozy cabin with creaky floors and a stack of old books, not beside a chipped snow globe and plastic Halloween mug. Admittedly, those blown glass oil lamps have a special charm.

What Makes Blown Glass Oil Lamps So Cool

Fine, so let’s geek out for a minute. Hand blown glass oil lamps were all the rage before electricity came around, and frankly never went out of style. Many were crafted with an eye for beauty — curved glass, swirls of color, sometimes elaborate patterns melted into the glass itself. And being handmade and all, they were all a bit different.

Some of them were even created as “whimsies” — that is, glassblowers taking it easy at the end of a long day, creating whatever struck their fancy from a pile of leftover pieces of glass. Which kind of makes each cool lamp even cooler, right? It’s like having a snapshot of someone’s creativity in your hand. That’s the appeal of blown glass oil lamps.

However, and there’s a a possibility that this is just me, I like the idea of things that serve a purpose and look good doing it.

The Missing Wick Mystery

Mine was missing both the wick and the insert, which I later discovered is fairly typical. Those small pieces disappear with time. To be totally honest, if I hadn’t already known what it was, I’d likely have thrown it into a drawer and just assumed that it was some kind of weird vase for a single spaghetti noodle.

But now that I know? I’m looking for something to replace it. So, turns out you can buy wick holders online if you know the size. At worst, I’ll just jury-rig something myself. It will not make its way into museums, but it will make do. This search has made me love my blown glass oil lamps even more.

And I will tell you this: I will light it once. Just to get an idea of what sort of glow it emits. Just to sit in that soft light and fantasize, for a moment, that I’m living in a slower, more peaceful era.

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