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1951 Male Reglor Bullfighter Lamp Take Two

1951 Male Reglor Bullfighter Lamp Take Two

Recently, I decided to replace the light bulb sockets and harps on our Reglor bullfighter lamps. When we originally purchased these lamps, they arrived busted. Fortunately, I was able to restore them. Sometimes, when you restore chalkware lamps that have significant damage, there are hidden weak spots under the surface. When I tried to attach the new bulb socket, the head of the male bullfighter lamp cracked into several pieces. Needless to say, I was completely devastated. For those of you who have restored these lamps might know, it’s a tedious process. Hours of my work literally crumbled in my hands. To make matters worse, upon further examination it appeared that I would be unable to repair the damage.

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Once I came to grips with what had happened, I jumped on eBay and was able to purchase a replacement male bullfighter lamp. Fortunately, the seller did not live too far away, and we were able to meet up to pick up the lamp. It’s not often that you can find a same day replacement for a vintage lamp!

Unpainted Reglor

That’s not dirt you see, that’s nicotine. You wouldn’t believe how much came off.

The color scheme of the original lamps was orange and brown. These were colors we were never keen on. The lamp we just picked up needed to be repainted, so I took the opportunity to go with a whole new color scheme. The colors I went with are vintage coral and hematite (a graphite color). I think these two colors compliment one another very well.

Reglor Lamps

After about a full day of painting, here is the result.

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I decided to add a little more detail to the lamp.

Of course, these aren’t the original lamp shades and we’re not really happy with them. We plan to replace the shades with ones that incorporate the same colors as the lamps.

Reglor Bullfighter Lamp

Here’s the female bullfighter.

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This pair compliments our bedroom nicely.

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Large 1951 Tropical Reglor Lamps

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Upon review of our blog, I noticed that I forgot to show the resto on our 1951 Reglor lamps. Sometimes I get too caught up restoring that I forget to blog about the restorations I complete. Below is a before and after of these. I used the same restoration process I have used on other chalkware pieces.

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As you can see, they are not in terrible condition, but there is some damage and years of filth built up on the surface.

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The female lamp had damage to her waist down to the metal wire.

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Here is the repair and repaint of the damage to her waist.

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I am pleased how these have been freshened up.

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She looks like new now!

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I don’t think these are the original Reglor shades, but they work.

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On to the next resto!

Vintage Hawaiian Reglor Lamp Restoration

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REGLOR HISTORY

Bernie Stien and Rena Stien began Reglor of California in 1947. Reglor is the combination of the names Rena and her cousin Gloria. Credit for the design inspirations is to be shared with Oscar Vega, a production assistant. Regular lamps were frequently produced as a male and female pair.The distinctive shades of Reglor lamps were also made in house. Production stopped in 1975 when the Reglor factory in Montebello, California burned down. 

 REGLOR TROPICAL LAMPS

Mel and I picked these up some time ago. I was hesitant to buy them because the paint was peeling pretty well on the male dancer. I have seen this condition issue before on chalkware lamps, and it had turned me off from purchasing them in the past. I think this happens from the lamp getting wet and the chalk underneath wicking up the water thus causing the paint to lose grip and peel off.

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This restoration will be more difficult than the others because it is going to take more to cover up and level up the surfaces.

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This is what the damage looks like. The paint bubbles up from the surface. There are numerous spots on the male lamp and a few on the female lamp.

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To help break loose the bubbling paint I used a safety pin to get under the paint and break it off.

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The next step was to apply the spackle on the edges where the paint loss was and let it dry.

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Once dry I blended the edges into the surrounding area to level out the surface.

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I choose seafoam green paint for the main body of the lamps and stuck with the brown color for the exposed body parts.

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These are the last of the tropical lamps that needed to be restored.

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These will look great in the Tiki Room! On to the next restoration!

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Bo-Low Leopard Lamp Restoration

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Mel and I picked up this Bo-Low lamp sometime back. We had been admiring it for a while at a local antique shop and were finally able to acquire it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find out anything about the Bo-Low Lamp Co.

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As you can see, it looks like it traveled around a bit. It also had a chunk of chalk missing from a part of the top of the tree.

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I used my usual process to repair it.

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The next step was to paint the whole cat a cream color to help even out it’s finish, and so that the new color would take better.

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I then applied the main undercoat.

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As you can see from this photo, this cat had no real detail and was almost a cream color.

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Here is the same head shot after I added detail and color.

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Painting the leopard spots are fairly simple. Just make misshapen marks like I did above.

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The next step is to apply a small amount of black around parts of the brown to create the tradition leopard spot.

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Here is the original.

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Here it is after I refinished it.

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The original base was just tan so I added a grass effect to the bottom so it would tie in with its awesome shade.

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It’s coming along as you can see, just the tail left to complete.

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Just adding some finishing touches.

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Ta Da! Here it is all done!

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We have had this shade sitting around for sometime, and this seems like the perfect shade for this lamp.

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I am very happy with how it turned out.

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Tropical Reglor Lamps

Since Mel and I moved into a fifties ranch style home we have been hard at work making it our own. We are fortunate that this home has a lanai and we decided to make that our tiki room. Since we moved from an almost 5,000 sq. ft. home to an almost 1,800 sq. ft. home, we have had to re-evaluate our collection and keep what we think is the best of our collection. It makes it hard when you find new treasures such as these great Reglor Hawaiian lamps.

IMG_5712I was unaware that Reglor produced two different Hawaiian lamp sets. Both of these sets are breathtaking and the use of chartreuse makes them that much more atomic!

IMG_5713As far as chalkware lamps go, I have always had an appreciation for what Reglor produced.

IMG_5704This set is in great overall condition considering its age. I am guessing this set was produced sometime in the late 40’s or early 50’s. Usualy Reglor produced lamps with a thick base and this set has a thin base.

IMG_5709This set has some condition issues as you can see. My approach to repair the peeling paint is to remove as much of it as possible. After the peeling paint is removed you have to feather out the edge of the remaining paint into the body of the lamp. This will help make the repair look seamless when painted.

IMG_5706Here is our other freshly acquired 1951 Reglor set. We stumbled across these lamps while cruising Craigslist. These are larger than the other set.

IMG_5714The only issue with this set is that the Hawaiian girl has a crack at her waist. I will repair the crack with my usual process.

IMG_5504These two sets will really help make our tiki room that much more cooler. Once we get the house the way we like it we will make sure to showcase it in a future blog.

Mid Century Plasto Mfg. Co. Lamps

IMG_3627If you have followed us for a while you might remember the Plasto lamp I repaired a while back.  This set has a similar styling to the one repaired.

IMG_3623As you can see, we picked up this large two shade Plasto lamp and a smaller single shade Plasto lamp.  For some reason I think this was a set of three lamps, but I have no way to verify that.

IMG_3625I can’t tell what the flowing style figural design is, maybe its just abstract.  They look like leaves, but I am not sure.

IMG_3624The lamps are in good shape for their age, but they will need a mild resto to bring them back to new.

IMG_3630The lamps seem to have their original shades and are in remarkable shape.  The lacing is still complete and there are no burns or staining on the shades.

IMG_3634These will stay in our collection and will have a place of pride in our home.  We just love these two lamps!

Here Are Some Quick Picks

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These chairs belonged to the grandfather of the guy I purchased them from.  He had them in his man cave.  The upholstery job leaves something to be desired.  I plan to remove the back rests (they are not original) and redo the seat bottoms in a different color.  I tried to find info on the manufacturer but was unsuccessful.

I came across these on Craigslist and knew I wanted them.  I love the style of the metal backrests.

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There is a lot of surface rust, but a little sand paper and paint will fix that.

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I need to figure out where to get new feet for a couple of the stools.

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I have seen this style in a table and chair form, but this is the first time I have seen the style in barstool form!  I think we will replace the stools that we are currently using with our…..

expWe purchased this bar a while back and love it.  I think I may have blogged about it before, but cant find the post!

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Here the bar is in its upright form

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Here is the back of it.  It has holders for glasses and bottles that lay down when the bar is folded into a coffee table!

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Here is what the bar looks like when folded into a coffee table.  Such a cool design by the ABCO company!

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Here it is all the way folded down.  This could slide under a bed for quick and easy storage.  This is going under a covered patio of our next place for entertaining.

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We picked this up for a quick $40 off of Craigslist as well.  It needs some restoring but that will be easy.  We have 2 of the pink and 1 brown versions of this lamp, so we thought aqua would be a nice contrast.

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I picked this lamp up at one of our local haunts.   The lampshade is one we had sitting around.  This will go into our booth for resale.

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These lamps are our friend Stephen’s.  They require repair so we traded for the magazine holder below.

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These lamps have damage around the switch but that shouldn’t be too hard to fix.  The lampshades for these lamps are in fantastic shape.  Stephen is going to throw them on eBay once the repairs are done.  These have no maker listed.

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Here is a nice jadite set that will be goin’ in the booth.

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Thinking I would like to be more proactive in the repair of our radios.  I picked up this working Conar model 224 tube tester for $15.  In a later post I plan to recover this unit with new stag material.

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It appears you can test radio and television tubes.  I have never used one of these units, so I hope its self explanatory.

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Here is a mauve frieze couch we recently picked up.  It is in surprisingly great shape for its age.

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I can imagine this in our home with a couple of Heywood Wakefield end tables on each side and a cool looking Carlo above it. We are torn if we will keep it or put it in our booth.

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The coolest feature about this couch is that it is a sleeper as well.

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There is NO wear to the mattress at all.  I don’t think it was ever used!

1951 Reglor Fish Lamp Restoration

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This lamp will look fantastic once done. It even has the glass panel that sits in the holder.

Mel and I reached out to a seller on Ebay that had put this lamp on sale many times without any takers (this is a good technique to use with Ebay sellers when they have an item that isn’t selling, usually you can get the item for less). Anyways, the lamp was not in a color that worked with our color palette so we changed it up to match the other Reglor fish lamp I restored earlier.

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This is the one already restored and in our bathroom.

We decided to paint it in a similar color scheme so they match the shades and look like they go together. Fish stuff from this time period always seem collectible.

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This lamp was in pretty good shape but it had some chips and some paint loss……but no CRACKS!!! Yay!!!

After a good cleaning and a few hours of painting it turned out great! We are soo glad that this restoration is complete.

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I also needed to replace the lamp harp and the light bulb socket.

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These look great together and will serve us well for years to come.

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Hawaiian Chalkware Lamps & Rewire

Mel and I picked these up at a local antique store and knew they would look fantastic in our Tiki room. As you can see from the before photo they were really dusty and needed some freshening up. Per my previous posts you know that I love to re-finish old lamps. These needed to be cleaned and repainted. I took a little creative license when it came to the repaint and I think they turned out great! Here is how they turned out:

Here she is. We were able to get these venetian shades but they were lime green and I knew that would look too strange so I painted them to match.

Here is the hula man. They both turned out well.

I even added facial features such as eyes, eyebrows and lips. When you redo a lamp don’t be afraid to add your own twist.

After both of these were re-finished I wasn’t comfortable with the “burn down my house” cord that was still attached to both. I decided to run over to Lowes to pick up a couple of lamp rewire kits so I would not have any worries when using these.

Required items: 1 faulty wired lamp, 1 rewire kit, cross tip and flat tip screwdriver & wire strippers/side cutters.

The first step is to dismantle the existing light assembly. I always recommend that you hang onto all pieces of the old lamp till you are done. These rewire kits you purchase are generic and sometimes the hardware doesn’t work with your lamp so you may have to reuse some of the cosmetic pieces.

Remove lamp harp, light bulb sleeve and shroud.

Next you need to disconnect the two wires connected to the light assembly.

Remove the rest of the hardware from the upper part of the lamp. Leaving just the wires sticking out of the top.

The next part is to cut the plug portion of the old cord off and push it through the base of the lamp so it can be pulled through the top of the lamp later. Now take the new cord and feed it through the base of the lamp (once the new cord is though the base tie a knot in the cord but make sure it’s loose so you can adjust it later) and twist the ends of the new cord together with the old cord. This will allow you to pull the new cord through the lamp when you pull the old cord out through the top. It is important that when you try to pull the new cord through the lamp that as you pull on the old cord you are pushing on the new cord.

Here you can see the new wire pulled through the lamp. Once you give yourself a little slack on top adjust the knot on the bottom to be tight against the base. The knot prevents the wire from getting pulled out if someone tugs on the cord.

I had to use the old base hardware but I was able to replace the harp holder and lower bowl for the bulb.

The next step is to re-attach the wires to the light assembly, slide cardboard insert over light assembly and then the metal sleeve and push the whole assembly into the light assembly bowl till it feels secure, it should lock/snap into place. Install the new harp and attach the lampshade and screw on the finial and you are all done. You just rewired a lamp! Not too hard huh?

Now I don’t have to keep the fire extinguisher handy when these are on.

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