Oh crud. Forgot my question! Just wondering what your thoughts are on this and if you can tell me more about these lamps.

You're welcome! :D

JEALOUS! I would put that beauty right beside my favorite reading chair. Great pick!

The base can definitely be saved, although you will lose the surface on it and may have a hard time matching the finish on the rest of the lamp. You could use naval jelly to remove the rust -- I don't know if it will strip the paint. Or clean it with 0000 steel wool (this WILL remove at least some of the paint). Then keep rust from reforming by painting with something like Rustoleum or sealing with untinted furniture wax.

It's a great lamp, and well worth any effort you have to put into it.

Thank you guys, and thank you chibimimi for the suggestions.

The base of this style of lamp has to be very heavy to keep the lamp from tipping over. Even with a heavy base, these are subject to tipping. The wider the spread of the feet, the better resistance to tipping. The spread of the feet of your lamp is not very much, so use care in placing the lamp for use. Often, the original shade gets broken so replacements are common. Feel really lucky if you have an original shade. For good design, the base should be very heavy with the rest of the lamp made with light weight parts.

Another weak spot is the electrical lamp socket. This type of socket pulls apart with ease and the entire weight of the shade is hanging on the socket. This socket is held together by a few small detents mating with the lanced ring of holes. The socket is put togeher by snapping the two halves together; It is taken apart by pressing the bottom part inward to release the detents. It is easily bent near the cutout that clears the switch stem.

I can not be sure, but you may have the original socket. The old sockets were larger in diameter than modern ones. I have a similar style lamp and needed to replace the inner insulation liner and switch. That's when i discovered the difference in sizes. I wished to preserve its antique nature, but could not readily find the proper electrical repair parts. The new parts were smaller in diameter and the entire assembly fit inside the old shell. I installed new parts, but kept the old pieces so that if I ever found original, serviceable, parts, I could return the lamp to its original shape.


About the base.

My lamp has a heavy cast ion base. However, the corrosion on the base of your lamp has a blue-green color (possibly copper sulfate) indicating that the base may be a copper alloy, maybe brass or bronze. Check it with a magnet. An iron or steel base will be strongly magnetic; a brass or bronze base is not magnetic. The material may affect you choice of cleaning materials and methods. If the base is bronze, try to retain its patina and clean off only loose dirt and grunge.

The corrosion color may not accurately predict the base material because there is the possibility that something got spilled on it like battery acid.

Rembrandt Floor Lamp

The nearest I could find to your lamp is in the link below. It is a Rembrandt Floor Lamp, Model R 7079. Your model is R 8062.

You have a real find!

The finish has been restored on model R 7079 (link below) and is priced at $900 per lamp. I did find other Rembrandt floor lamps in lesser condition at $375 each.

This link claims the lamp is iron based and copper plated. It was finished in black. This should give you some hints about the materials. It is described as Art Deco 1920-1929. There exist earlier Rembrandt floor lamps circa 1910.

Rembrandt Floor Lamp, model R 7079

Thanks for the info! I tried a magnet and it stuck to the base and the arm, so they must be cast iron, while the magnet didn't stick to the stem, so maybe that would be bronze or some other metal mix? The corrosion of the base scares me. I'm going to take it to an antique dealer in town here sometime this week and see what they think and if they know of someone who can restore it. The plug on the cord needs to be replaced, the wires are exposed and I don't trust them. The cord itself looks good. Maybe just change the whole thing. I don't know. We'll see. Could the design of the lamp possibly be Art Nouveau instead of Art Deco? I question it because the flowery design, but I don't know about these things, really.