Ebay item # 220526336408

I saw this on ebay. I'm not sure how to post a picture of it, but the item number is 220526336408. Unfortunately it is a little out of my price range.

This is a painted version of R-685. I know that painted pieces are worth more, but it is hard to figure MORE than high book value since prices have dropped as a hole lately. I find it interesting that this example is using the shorter and fatter bud vases than the book example. This would require a different size support ring for them. Still this is a very nice example of painted Burmese glass. One of the auction photos is below.

After I posted the photo, I noticed that the dog bone is not sitting down on the frame as it should. I wonder if there is an issue with the lamp, because I don’t think the upper brass piece would thread into the base if the dog bone is not correctly placed. Any ideas?

It appears to have an extra fitting at the base of the dogbone that doesn't belong. Or, belongs at the top and not the bottom.


What do you think of the decoration?

I see what the issue is, and it would need to be fixed. The piece between the dog bone and the base is the nut that should be on the underside of the base. The top brass piece has a threaded rod that goes down the middle of the dog bone into a threaded washer that goes directly under the dog bone to hold it in place. Then the threaded rod threads into the bottom brass piece, and the threaded nut then goes on the underside to keep all the pieces in place so they don’t spin around. I have added a photo of these pieces disassembled in the correct order. It looks like the photo above, someone has soldered the nut to the base which would require a little heat to fix.

I think you have it. The question is.....Why would someone solder the nut on the top? Strange. But, mystery solved.

I don’t have that big of a problem with the decoration on this piece. In the photo above, you can see that the shade decorations and bud vase decorations almost match perfectly between the same items, which are common in lamps that have been together their whole life I have found. The little loss in detail could be the talent of the artist doing the painting. Looking at the discussion we have been having on the Webb Decoration on cased glass pieces in the Victorian Art Glass forum, you can see variation between the upper row of shades in the length of the foliage. This lamp has the correct shaped buds, leaves and flowers. Even the paint colors of brown, purple yellow and light green in the photos in the auction very closely match other originals. The one thing that I do find interesting about the painting is that the outside of the center bud holder is not painted below the support ring. I don’t think I have seen a painted piece left plain like that (R-696, U-118 and U-172), and the painting around the top of the flair is not done in the usual manner. This piece has the flower buds and leaves evenly spaced around the top where it is common to have a large decoration on one side and trailing off to the opposite side as seen in R-693. (I hope this description makes sense to everyone). I would still love to know what the artists looked at when they were doing the paintings. Did they have live flowers in front of them, or a large painting that hung on the wall so everyone could see it, or even individual paintings that they worked from, or photos? This is probably a question what will never be answered, but it could answer some questions also about the variations.