Friday, June 1, 2007
Lamps make a tremendous difference to your decor. No one should have to live with lamps that are ugly, dated or downright invisible because of sheer dullness.

The Japanese have always felt that we should pour our highest artistic talents into the things we use in everyday life. Tea cups and bowls, for example. Lamps certainly fall into this category. Everyday objects can either be used routinely, or they can bring beauty into every moment. A Schonbek lamp will, I assure you, bring pleasure and beauty into your life.

Today I feel like advocating lamps with rock crystal ornaments. Rock crystal is a semi-precious natural quartz, a wonderful souvenir from prehistory. And then, in the hands of  artistic designers, hand-carved and hand-polished rock crystal becomes of great interest to collectors. Besides, a finely worked piece of rock crystal is a mesmerizing object of contemplation, reminding us of the great age of our planet and the mysteries of the natural world. Philosophers as well as collectors have coveted rock crystal art objects since antiquity.

There’s a breathtakingly beautiful rock crystal lamp on this website called Celeste.  Rich and creamy is the way I would describe this lamp. There are three large rock crystal spheres integrated into the design, the one at the base quite large.  The castings encircling the body of the lamp at three points echo the very elaborate braiding of the shade, a level of detail you might not be able to see on a website image. All in all, if you’re looking for a classic lamp, you can’t do better than this one.

Rocca is also a charmer. It has somewhat retro styling. Fat crystal disks at the base and in the body of the lamp are what make this lamp feel so precious. And it lights up by means of two pull chains, which is a fun feature.

Then there’s Flamenco, a lamp that feels like haute couture to me. The fact that there’s a matching Flamenco rock crystal chandelier is delightful to those of us who like themes. I find endless fascination in the rock crystal spheres dangling at the heart of both lamp and chandelier, each with a spiral orbit of Strass® crystal beads.

All the designers in our office are busy today retouching crystal chandeliers for a catalog. The fact is, a crystal chandelier is such a dazzling thing, so full of dancing light and spectral surprises, no camera can capture it with complete accuracy.

Often the photographer has to combine multiple shots into one to get near to the truth of the appearance of the real life chandelier. And then our designers have to fuss further to make sure the colors and nuances are true to life.

Even after all that, no image is ever as gorgeous as the crystal chandelier in person.

The most difficult chandeliers to photograph are those made with colored crystal, and also rock crystal chandeliers.

Another problem is that the best and most perfectly focused photo in the world can’t really reproduce depth. A crystal chandelier exists very much in space. There’s an in-depth quality to a traditional crystal chandelier that invites you to walk all around it, that reaches out to you. The crystal pendants are all facing different directions and interacting with reflections from each other. Looking at a crystal chandelier is a totally dynamic experience.

We can capture this somewhat on a DVD, but then you’re still missing the sense of the chandelier in relation to yourself. This is important. A crystal chandelier is responding to you personally, even as you gaze upon it. The colors of your clothing, your eyes and hair, are being picked up by the crystal. If there’s a large crystal ball at the finial point of the chandelier, the entire room, including you, may be reproduced within the luminous heart of the sphere.

The smart thing to do, if you’re thinking about getting a crystal chandelier, is to visit a showroom where Schonbek crystal chandeliers are on display. You may need a different size or configuration of chandelier than the styles in the showroom, but you can get the very pleasurable sensation of what it’s like to be in the shimmering presence of a Schonbek chandelier.