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Tag Archives: Reglor

Rare 1943 Lumitone Radio Lamp

Rare 1943 Lumitone Radio Lamp

I stumbled across one of these while I was cruising eBay. I had never heard of these before and was fascinated by the design and the idea of it. For the next few months I searched for them on auction sites and luckily managed to secure two of them for our collection. What’s crazy is one of these lamps was produced in 1943, that’s only 2 years after the Pearl Harbor attacks (the other lamp has no info on the bottom). With World War 2 occurring, did that influence the style of these lamps? Who knows, but they are cool!

The ones I ended up purchasing had different bases. One was cream like the body color and the other was a gold color.

These are in found condition and I plan to restore the cases and make them both have the gold bottoms.

The shades I put on these units are not original. The original shades were kind of lame and to me did not compliment the lamps. I’m not sure what lamps these came off of (maybe Majestic), but I like the look they give these Lumitone lamps. They look more Atomic.

It’s crazy how expensive things become over time. It’s cool to see ads with the original price.

The all cream Lumitone unit had all its tags on the bottom. The other one seems to be missing all that info.

With us moving to Texas in the next few months, I plan to create a music/audiophile room. These are the perfect pieces to compliment that set up.

Autumn’s Under the Sea Nursery

 

Ever since Mel and I found out we’re having a baby girl, we have worked hard at getting the nursery in order. We decided to name her Autumn, but we didn’t want to use a predictable Autumn theme such as owls, leaves, foxes, etc.  We had an excess of Mel’s fifties ceramic wall fish and mermaids, and we couldn’t find a place for our mid-century Reglor fish lamps, so we decided to do an under the sea theme. This was not easy to carry out considering most sea themed nursery items are geared towards boys.

What would our baby nursery be if we didn’t add a Carlo of Hollywood watercolor trio? This trio offered a unique challenge because the two smaller Carlo paintings have chartreuse colored frames. This required me to introduce that color throughout the room to tie it all together.

We were more comfortable with using modern MCM style pieces in her room rather than vintage children’s furniture because we had concerns about safety and lead paint. We chose the Babyletto Bingo 3-in-1 convertible crib and storage combo. What drew us to this crib is the mid-century style and splash of sea-foam green accent. For seating, we needed something comfortable for the long nights ahead and we knew a wooden rocking chair wouldn’t cut it. Searching online, we came across this blush colored swivel rocking chair by Delta Children. We vintaged up the rocking chair by adding an original atomic barkcloth throw pillow that pulls colors from the room.

Believe it or not, the dressers are from Ikea. They are the Busunge style and come in either pink or white. When you purchase them, each dresser comes in two boxes. One box has the frame, and the other has the drawers. So, we got creative and mixed pink drawers with a white frame. We think it compliments the room nicely.

On top of the dressers we have our 1951 Reglor fish lamps. I restored them about five years ago and we absolutely love them. Vintage fish lamps are very hard to find. Continental Art Company made a fish lamp that we’re still looking for. I’ve linked it here.

Because we wanted to make the room as atomic as possible, we pulled in some vintage shadowboxes. The first shadowbox on the left has a similar shape to a Carlo of Hollywood frame. It’s a reversed forced perspective style. Inside the shadowbox are vintage ceramic mermaids and fish by Lefton, Bradley, Gilner & Relco. The bowtie shadowboxes have vintage fish and mermaids by Lefton, Josef Originals and Nameth Enterprises. The amoeba shaped shadowboxes contain vintage mermaids by Bradley. We filled in the open spaces above the figurines in each shadowbox with vintage ceramic bubbles. We used museum max to secure them in place so we didn’t have to nail into the shadowboxes.

Instead of just hanging Autumn’s vintage ceramic fish on a blank canvas, I decided to paint under the sea murals with mountain silhouettes as the backdrop. The first photo showcases vintage fish and mermaids by Deforest, Norecrest, and Freeman McFarlin. The vintage wall fish in the center photo are all by Freeman McFarlin. The vintage shell in the center photo is just marked Japan. The last photo has vintage fish by Deforest, Ceramicraft and a vintage shell marked Japan.

The vintage mermaids on the left are by Freeman McFarlin. The center school of fish are by Lefton. The last photo of the vintage seahorses are by Nameth.

All the above vintage ceramic fish are by Deforest.

The upper left photo showcases our favorite pink vintage wall fish made by Freeman McFarlin. The blue swordfish is also by Freeman McFarlin, and the two small green fish are by Ceramicraft. The vintage angel fish on the upper right are by Deforest. The last photo is a really large mural made up of many vintage ceramic fish by Freeman McFarlin, Deforest and Ceramicraft.

We’re really happy with how the room came together. Unfortunately, we don’t think that the photos do the murals justice. Here are some additional photos of the finished room.

This vintage pendant light was designed by Heiftez Rotaflex.

Milo and Kozmo have taken to Autumn’s new room. We find them sleeping on her bean bag all the time.

 

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.

ABCO Wall Dancers

IMG_2157Mel was in Texas on business and was able to squeeze out a little time after work to hit a local antique store where she found these rather large chalkware dancers by ABCO (Alexander Backer Company).  These are in really great shape with no chips, cracks or old repairs.

IMG_2160ABCO would either do an impression stamp to mark its work or a decal.  They produced many figures over the years and are pretty collectible.

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I usually see just the girls hanging on the wall without the metal frame. Mel was fortunate to find such a nice pair.

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These little flowers are a nice touch.

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The great thing about these is that I do not have to do anything except hang them!

Retro Framed Chalkware Figures

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The figures were in really great shape and needed just a little touch up. The background was faded to gray.

Mel and I came across these at an antique store in San Jose. As I am sure you all know by now, I love chalkware. I can’t ever get enough chalkware pieces.

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Both figures had wear on their nose and knees.

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The figures are painted in a pearl yellow paint.

I was not aware how faded the backgrounds were until I removed the figures.

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You can see the original aqua color behind the figure.

After I repainted the backgrounds the figures pop!

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Shazam!

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These will be breathtaking when finally hung on the wall.

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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Lil Bit Country

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Mel and I were up in Sebastopol California having a look around when we came across these small lamps at FFT Antiques (All sales benefit Food For Thought, Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank). I love them! Mel….not soo much. I know they are going to need a big resto but I am up to it. It is sooo hard to find western things from the 40’s and 50’s. Most of it was destroyed from use. I love this square dancing duo. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a makers mark.

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As you can see the paint is chipping off in chunks. The first thing I will have to do is remove all the loose paint, then fill any areas that require fill, then sand and paint. Also, if he is a cowboy why is he wearing loafers??? These will be boots when I am done.

These lamps have been used and abused so the transformation should be pretty remarkable. These lamps even have their original finials.

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As you can see someone tried to touch up her dress but it doesn’t look like they were very successful with the attempt.

We were fortunate to get the original shades with the lamps. One is darker than the other so I plan to recover them and re-stencil the image on the new material. I just need to figure out where I can get replacement material from.

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While we were out we came across these really cool pillows. I love the fringe on the one and the imagery on both. I am going to have to reach out to Debbie over at “The Creative Needle” to install zippers on these and install fringe on the other pillow.

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Really cool ranch images….roping cattle, bustin’ bronks and taking it easy.

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