Pair of late 19th century antique japanese wooden itomaki silk spool table lamps

A pair of late 19th century acacia wood silk spools, or itomaki, handcrafted in japan during the meiji restoration (1868-1912), when silk production in japan was still a cottage industry. They have been sensitively, and reversibly, repurposed as a pair of small table lamps, with new solid brass fittings and a bold vintage-style cable. The lamps bear the marks of their industrial past, with knocks and bumps that add no small amount of individual character. As spools, they are largely redundant, but as lamps they are fully functional, balanced, and take on a surprising mid-century aesthetic (perhaps revealing the inspiration for american-japanese designer isamu noguchi's late 1940s wooden table lamps for knoll that took on similar forms). The lamps have been fitted with british made solid brass switched b22 bayonet bulb holders, and wired with a generous length of premium italian double insulated 3-core cable with a vibrant vintage-style green rayon braid to reflect the vibrant japanese silks that would once have been spun on them. The timber has been thoroughly cleaned and brought back to life with many applications of tung oil, a process that takes about a week to do properly, and was given a final finishing coat in museum-grade microcrystalline wax.

Ref. : 82YQP8WA