Chandelier Goes to U.S. Capitol

Port Townsend Chandelier Heads for Washington

By Jeff Chew, archived from Peninsula Daily News, March 2008

PORT TOWNSEND — Shipping a nearly $7,000 chandelier to the U.S. Capitol is no quick and easy task.

Just ask Ken and Jane Kelly, owners of Vintage Hardware, 2000 Sims Way, Port Townsend, who on Wednesday sent off a reproduction of an Oxley-Giddings 1870 gasolier, with 10 lamps and elegant hand-blown and carved glass globe shades.

Destination: the Architect of the Capitol office.

 Above, reproduction of an Oxley-Giddings 1870 gasolier.

"We have to do it the way they want it," Jane said of sending off the luxurious 45-inch-tall fixture.

Packing such an intricate order involves a four-foot square metal crate to protect it from forklift damage.

Lots of bubble and recycled foam packing material protects the fixture's delicate parts.

It took five days to package the chandelier, an arduous task that requires assembly and checking hundreds of crystals, she said.

Capitol Building

The glittery fixture will be hung on the Senate side of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., Ken was told.

It was the third order filled by Vintage Hardware since 1999, Jane said.

Contacted Wednesday, the Architect of the Capitol spokeswoman declined to elaborate further on where the chandelier, or other Vintage Hardware orders, went, saying the agency did not want to give free advertising to any business with which it deals.

The Architect of the Capitol is responsible to Congress for the maintenance, operation, development and preservation of the U.S. Capitol complex.

That includes the Capitol, congressional office buildings, the Library of Congress buildings, the Supreme Court building, the U.S. Botanic Garden and the Capitol Power Plant.

The agency first ordered a chandelier through Vintage Hardware during the Clinton Administration in 1999.

It was a 55-inch Rocco with 12 shades and weighing 227 pounds.

"They found us when we did a show back East, in Boston or Chicago, and they recently re-found us in New Orleans," Ken said, adding it led to the recent sale.

He originally handed over a foot deep of Vintage Hardware catalogs to an Architect of the Capitol office representative.

VP's office

While he is uncertain where the first chandelier went, a second order of 80 chandelier lamp shades in the late 1990s was to be used in the vice president's office at the White House.

Jane said Vintage recently filled an order for 90 pairs of door knobs and plates for the government of Puerto Rico.

Vintage Hardware light fixtures and products also have been used in more than 130 Hollywood movie sets, seven TV shows and for Disneyland, according to the Kellys' Web site at www.vintagehardware.com.

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Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: March 26, 2008

Copyright 2008 Peninsula Daily News. Reproduced by permission.