A beauty, to be sure!  Click here to the ebay listing.

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I am very excited about my latest vintage marketing material – a large catalog from Progress lighting dated December 1961.

The catalog is about equally split between retro groovy… southwestern style “Rancher”…colonial Americana… and viva Las Vegas, which is something that we have not dived into too much on this blog so far — but I feel an itch coming on!

Reading through I’ve learned that these lights were not called “retractable” — which is the term that I have been using. Rather, they were simply called “pull downs”.

And the copywriting from the Progress catalog is very fun:

Pull-downs in refreshing variety, with matching ceiling pieces and other coordinates… In this section, smartly sophisticated metal; nonchalance and warmth of wood in both walnut “slats” and “matchsticks”; “Ranchers”, large-scale and handsome as the Southwestrn originals; authentic charming and heart-warming are the “Early Americans”… Light moves from its age-old stationary position and becomes a faithful service of satisfying mobility, ease and luxury….

Today, I’ve featured two of the more modern lines: (1) The Sophisticates, and (2) Mardis Gras. I also have the price list, and it looks like the largest pull downs sold for $35-$40 at the end of 1961. Today, these can still be found on ebay, in many varieties. If you’re lucky, you can get a great price for a very mint fixture, but sometimes the bidding gets going on a desirable piece. In general – I predict these will continue to get hotter and hotter in the marketplace.

My Progress catalog has some 40+ pages of fixtures in all to showcase — many of them really terrific — so stay tuned for more!

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One of the greatest vintage kitchen fixtures ever! There are little night lights that point upward (behind the white glass trim at the top), along with regular sized bulbs pointing downward. This is a sweetheart!

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Oh my goodness, this vintage kitchen ceiling fixture is so Jane Jetson, my head is spinning. The retractable ceiling light fixture in my kitchen is from the same company, I think — the pointy switch to turn it on (three-way control) is identical.

Guys, it just doesn’t get any better than this.

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1. Bo Sullivan identifies my vintage pull-down kitchen light Kitchen photo: Copyright Kit Latham. One of the highlights of...
2. Where to find a shade for my vintage light – a round ceiling fixture? Where to find a shade for my vintage ceiling...
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