First of all, it is not cast iron,,it is wrought iron and it is typical of the cheap craft style goods that are imported from Mexico, along with velvet paintings and decorated clay pots.

What Pup said is really correct, Mimi. It has very little value now ... maybe $15 at a garage sale.

However, if you got rid of the amber glass and metal webbing, and either replaced them with clear or frosted cylinders or else put in candlestick-looking sockets and painted the metal so it's fresh, it might be a nice-looking fixture. Right now it looks very dated without being "vintage".

Or you could hold onto it for, say, 100 years and the style might come back.

Well...it is mexican tourist stuff of perhaps the 60's....but....depending on your house...it could go as is.
Thinking maybe a large southwestern style room....
It would also be cute painted white....and I would certainly keep the amber shades.
I might even think it might bring $20 in a garage sale.

I think it's nicer than velvet Elvises by far!

I think it was trendy at the time, and not cheap.

They were definitely stylish, often made to order, and not cheap.

The amber glass shades will not come out because they bulge through the mesh. You have to break them to remove them.

Actually, I think that someone who decorates in the Gothic style might love this piece!

Well.....My own opinion......I have two of these in my house. They do not look 100% like this, but they are very desired items. putting a price on this of $20 dollars would be giving this away. It is hard to find thesebecause of how delicate these are, and for one of these to be in this good of condition after x amount of years is great. This is a gothic revival style, and it takes someone who has that style to see the beauty, and it is for sale at $2500.00, but that is high becuase it is clear glass not amber which is more desired. I would keep this, and find a place for it. I had a little work done on my iron, and they were completely rewired, but the lighting they put off is magical!!! I think you have a gem on your hands!

I don't know if I would say, cheap, but rather inexpensive. It is hand made. It looks like the glass shades are blown through the metalwork, and that's not a 'cheap' process. There has been a recent resurgence in this type of glass so you might call that element "On Trend". The amber color is retro, and might appeal more to hypsters.

It is likely that the shades and the ironwork were done in two different shops.

The ironwork is hand forged, and would not be wise to spray paint, imho. I would expect that the same work, made in the same shop today would start around $400, new w/out shipping. Meaning it has at least a $100 antique value, and like others said $20-50 at a garage sale might even be too cheap.

To refurbish, I would go over it with fine steel wool and remove all rust. Look for "Stove Black" at the hardware store, it's a liquid stain used to darken iron.

The Stove Black can be cured on a very hot and sunny day, by laying tin foil on a table outside to reflect the light and leaving the freshly blackened item out to heat up for a few hours, otherwise the blackening will tend to cure on it's own over time.

On another note: my pet peeve is the popular misuse of the term 'revival' attached to any and all styles. It's a lazy dealers term for "I don't know what to call it, but if I use a fancy term, I might look like I know what I'm talking about and then you may be tricked into believing it is worth more than it really is." It's pretentious, is what it is.

In Historical use, the term "revival" has been applied to the eclectic and various styles of the 19th century and might be apropos of some pre 1920s design. But after seeing actual Victorian revival furniture on the Antiques Road Show, dealers started using the term willy-nilly, when "in-the-style-of" , or just "style" would be more accurate, "In the style of Gothic wrought iron" or "Gothic style".

Calling something a "revival" indicates a movement, with a group of designers or a ubiquitous style that can be identified. For instance, Napoleon III might be called Napoleonic revival, or even Empire revival. It was a style trend copying designs from a specific period and style. Secondly, 'revival' indicates a desire to 'revive' a style -not just pump something out that looks old or fancy.

The piece in question has only a cursory resemblance to Gothic style, design or metalwork. In fact, I defy you to find a piece that this resembles from the Gothic period (the high and late medieval period.) It only resembles Gothic style in fact that it is wrought iron, But 90% of wrought iron could be said to be in a Gothic Style, by the uneducated observer. Gothic is also a life-style trend since the 1980s, and the word "Gothic" by itself, might be used to describe a general design type or customer, as in calling something "Gothic" in the same way we would call a garment "Flapper", but it would be equally pretentious to call a 1960s shift-dress "Flapper Revival".

While I understand the marketing ploys used by antique dealers and the fact that the general public pick up on those words, as a collector I prefer to use accurate terminology. In most cases I prefer the terms used at the time the item was sold. In this case, furnishings like this chandelier from the late 1960s early 1970s were marketed as "Spanish Style", and much of those items were made in Mexico using age old techniques, often like this piece, but with a contemporary twist. Gothic was certainly the last thing on the minds of the people who made and sold this chandelier back then.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to Blacken a Wood Burning Stove

I swear I recently saw 3 of the same style in a Mexican restaurant in San Diego when I was visiting there two weeks ago. Having lived in SD for 25+ years and going down to Mexico several times in the past, I would have to say it's very common, and found in the majority of restaurants.

IMO, it has value only to someone who is wanting such a fixture, not because of it's age.

it it is what it is. whatever "it" is. a lot of time and labor went into forming the parts, blowing the glass and the assembly. remember, in mexico in the 60s the production plant was diego and his family. if it's inexpensive it's because it takes a lot of pesos to make a dollar.

if i were going to make this "it" more presentable , i'd clean the loose stuff off with scotch brite, dust it and apply a moist coat of ospho.(sp?)it has other names. but don't confuse it with a rust inhibitor , or primer. it's a chemical that returns iron rust into a black primer. automotive and hardware stores carry it. put just enough on to wet the metal and follow the instructions from there. i doubt you'll want to paint it later but you can.