Post #423969 by quickiki on Mon, Dec 15, 2008 11:11 AM

The antique style lamps, which are spelter or white metal are considered pretty fragile because the white metal is not particularly strong. Many of the Dodge lamps on eBay are often repaired or broken but there seems to be a few people out there specializing in repairing them.

Of the repros, the vast majority that I know of are painted resin. I've seen these painted a bronze color as well, but they definitely don't look like the antique kind.

I did at one time purchase a hula lamp through eBay that was a Charles Moore creation (see hulalamps.com or Hula Lamps of Hawaii for more info). These lamps in my opinion, are superior in construction to all other repros and the old Dodge types as well. His lamps are cast bronze and are more like a fine art sculpture as opposed to strictly a table lamp per se, but he does have a couple of styles that resemble the old Dodge style. Plus his mechanisms are quiet and very smooth. You can also purchase his lamps with various shade styles, all of which are very nicely detailed and not cheap looking like the resin styles. Retail, these lamps go for about $900 I think, but occasionally they pop up on eBay. I bought mine for about $400 and it was in perfect shape.

Here's one on eBay (not my auction) that's a little nicked up, but is in the old Dodge style.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Beautiful-Limited-Edition-Bronze-Hula-Lamp-Iwalani_W0QQitemZ320325082849QQihZ011QQcategoryZ35803QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[ Edited by: quickiki 2008-12-15 11:28 ]