Museum Quality James L. Howard Rail Car Center Lamp

It’s rare when you have the chance to purchase objects from an individual’s lifelong collection. The depth of knowledge and network of this important collector/expert can’t be duplicated. We had the opportunity to see these lamps first-hand and acquire some of the best examples. That’s why we closed shop for almost a week and drove half-way across the country. This is one of the rare early decorative train car lamps from this collection. These were also used on early steam ships. Few of these luxury class Victorian RR lamps still exist. Any remaining examples have found their way into museums some time ago. This was the type and quality of centre lighting used in private luxury Pullman cars of that era. They were also part of the elaborate personal train cars built for The Rockefeller’s and Vanderbilt’s. Here is a beautiful signed original double chandelier with 2 hand blown milk glass shades. It was carefully wired to take a standard bulb. We mounted the lamp to a 20 inch diameter finished wood disk. It can be kept that way or mounted directly to the ceiling without the wood just as it was mounted on the train. This lamp is signed James L. Howard, Hartford CT 1880. This is a nice piece of transportation history… 15″ deep x 26″ wide x 24″ tall… $5800