Midcentury modern meets Asian meets Early American in this vintage Moe kitchen light

Yowza — this  vintage Moe kitchen pull-down light fixture that Pam spotted on Ebay hits a rare sweet spot with its unusual combination of midcentury modern + Early American + Asian decorating motifs. We quite like it!

From the Ebay listing:

Presented is a vintage mid century pull down / retractable saucer ceiling light / lamp. This light fixture has real nice lines, showing a definite Asian / Arts & Crafts influence. The tubing that form the ‘tripod’ are solid brass, as is the small cone that joins them at the light switch (looks like an inverted shot glass) and the small round directly above the chimney / shade. All the other metal is brass tone finish on steel or aluminum (the shade holder with slots, the ‘shot glass’ that joins the rods at the top, the large saucer, the housing for the cord winder, and the ceiling canopy). The brass tone finish on the upper shot glass was flaking off, and has been removed to reveal the polished metal below. This shows very little mainly because the brass plate below it reflects off of it. The underside of the chimney / shade holder has lost some brass tone around the center. There’s a teak wood finial surrounding the switch. With a small dab of glue, the finial could be made to operate the switch, which may well have been the original design. The glass chimney is deeply sandblasted, leaving 3 horizontal raised clear glass lines.

The finish on the large 18″ diameter saucer is in good condition, both the brass tone and the white underside. The light from the switch to the top of the upper ‘shot glass’ is 19″ tall. The minimum drop from the ceiling, as shown in photo 2, is 27″ and extends down to 45″. Note the large saucer is not attached, but rests on the 3 tubes of the tripod, allowing it to be raised for removing the glass shade for cleaning or changing the bulb. It must be put in place prior to installing canopy to the ceiling.

See this item on ebay (listing now gone but I’ll keep this up for our archive — fantastic light fixture!) — thanks to seller joecalcite314 for  letting us feature his photos of this wonderful light fixture.