ANT-1326  Scarce Art Deco Solid Bronze Chandelier by Mid-West c.1935

Mid-West was a top of the line manufacturer who, in their beginning, only cast solid, bronze lights that were exceedingly difficult due to their reticulated design. Casting reticulations, as any casting man will tell you, is darn difficult. Casting material just doesn’t feed a reticulated casting fully unless the gating is extremely accurate and the skill...very precise.

So...here is a top-of-the-line, near mint, chandelier in solid bronze, circa 1935. Their amber “crackle-glass” shades are so valuable now...that the last “single” one made nearly $500 on EBay (see picture of the sale) because they are sooo hard-to-find. (We resist saying the iconic “rare” word as is so typical in the antique trade.)

Our museum reference to Mid-West, talks about a board meeting held, during the Depression, where some members of the board argued to change their materials from bronze to cheaper offerings since the they were afraid that customers would not be available to purchase the higher end lighting that they made due to the financial downturn of the Depression.

The Mid-West CEO/President denied the idea of substituting and stated that: “there are always people with money”. While they did not stop casting fabulous bronze lights, they also added an aluminum line to compete with Lincoln Mnf. who was selling to Sears. Sears’s customers, during the Depression, would not normally come up to the pricing level of Bronze Materials. The CEO was correct. Mid-West survived the depression and was sold a few years back to a large lighting conglomerate.

(Information courtesy of the Kelly Art Deco Lighting Museum.)

We have re-wired this fantastic chandelier to UL standards with new sockets in our UL shop. And here is a unique fact, when we first received the chandelier, it had tall sockets which...at first blush...looked to be a mistake.  However, once we compared short to tall sockets with the resulting lighting effect...and then to the original chandeliers in our museum...we realized that they used tall sockets to lift the light bulbs up over the crackle glass shades which gives a very neat lighting effect. However, this is NOT for low ceilings…as the bulbs will be visible. We re-wired this chandelier the way Mid-West did...tall sockets...for higher ceilings.

So, this chandelier is ready to hang with a standard light mounting kit, which we will supply.  

Measurements: 29" tall with a diameter of 19”.

Price: $2,250 with their five crackle glass shades, plus shipping charges. (Just the total shade value is $2500 if we are watching the market...so…kind of a bargain.)