Friday, September 30, 2011

Mystery Cone Lamp

If you are a yard saler, picker, thrifter, you know that you find some of the best stuff on the hottest days and in the sketchiest parts of town. This was one of those days...
I typically make a list of the sales I want to go to on Thursday mornings while drinking my coffee and checking out the listings on Craigslist. I came across a listing that was just south of the downtown area. A pretty sketch area, but it was listed as an estate sale for a couple who had passed 20 years ago. The son had left all of the belongings in a double garage, was now remodeling the house (his childhood home), and wanted the stuff gone. Doing some quick math...well, if they passed away in their 80's and that was 20 years ago, and 2011 minus 20 minus 80 would equal...you get the point! The sale started at noon, so I was out of the house by 11:30 on my way to Lord only knows where. I was greeted by a neighborhood of boarded up homes, scraggly landscaping, and $500 cars with $2,000 rims. Saw a dumpster with a small yard sale sign next to it. I spotted 2 other people going to the back of the house so I headed back. The man running the sale literally threw open the garage door and said to have at the glorious heap of retro! It had clearly been stored there for the said 20 years. It was hot, dusty, and musty. This sale was now straight out of the show American Pickers. Thankfully, I had my hand sanitizer. I picked up some cool vintage dolls, tag on Mad Men style dresses (which can be seen in my Etsy store Vintage Dreams), and a cukoo clock.
This brings me to the pick of that day: Way in the back of this shack of a garage I spotted it...a very cool looking lamp with its original box. I started wading through the dusty, spidery, heaps o'stuff and scooped it up, it was mine! Here's the photo:
The box is labeled Snyder Mfg Co, Philadelphia, PA and states that it is a Stand-Op (yes, 'O' 'P') telescoping folding lamp. It seems from my Google search that the Snyder Co. no longer exists and I cannot find any photos of a lamp exactly like this one anywhere. I have seen photos of other tripod lamps but not like this one. I am trying to figure out if this lamp has a special name in the MCM world, you know like Noguchi or artichoke light. I know it is neither, but one could dream right? So my friends, any ideas?
Also, if any of my mid century blogger followers have friends who may know, please pass this post along to them.

I would love for you to share any fun MCM lighting finds you may have in the comments section, thanks!



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