Often misunderstood or overlooked completely, many of the earliest Colonial Revival fixtures weren’t reviving old styles at all, but simply taking inspiration from Colonial-era examples. This first generation of Colonial Revival lighting from around the turn of the century was called “Modern Colonial” and simply grafted Colonial themes like scrolling arms, stacked spinnings, and hexagonal-paneled tubing and canopies onto the typical fixture forms of the day. (c1905, Rejuvenation archives)

The first true Colonial Revival fixtures were the ones that actually tried to emulate lighting styles of 1700s and early 1800s. These fixtures can have an almost academic devotion to precedent, and retain the pattern language of the original fixtures and their fuel types – candles, Argand burners, and oil founts. (c1920, Rejuvenation archives)

The Sheffield style holds a special place in the Colonial Revival canon. Named for the famed metalworking area of Sheffield, England – whose manufacturers exported their wares to the American colonies in the 18th century – Sheffield fixtures are characterized by the distinct pattern of narrow and wide alternating decorative ribs on their surfaces, with the pattern often extending right into the glass shades as well. First becoming popular around 1905 and peaking between 1910 and 1915, adaptable Sheffield fixtures were found in homes of most any style, including Arts & Crafts. (c1909 Rejuvenation archives)

Enthusiastically embraced in the early 20th century, where do the Georgian and Adam styles fit into the Colonial Revival picture? Well, there were Georges on the throne in England from 1714 to 1830 – virtually the entire Colonial era – so the many styles that were popular during their reigns (and thus imported into the colonies) are called Georgian. Perhaps most popular of these styles was the neoclassicism developed by architect Robert Adam and his brothers John and James between 1760 and 1790, during the reign of George III and concurrent with the American Revolution. (c1922, Rejuvenation archives)

The late 1920s began a period of “devolving” Colonial Revival in which the more rustic side of the style came to the forefront, and where interest in authentic reproductions of Colonial fixtures gave way to rather “free” and almost cartoonish interpretations of early American lighting. (c1920s & 1930s, Rejuvenation archives)

During the Depression era after 1929, manufacturers sought ways to make their ever-popular Colonial Revival fixtures more romantic and less expensive. The result was lighting that took the appearance of having been hand-wrought by “ye olde village smythie” (actually cast in cheap zinc alloys) with often clumsy interpretations of the quaint look of a century earlier. Colonial Revival had it’s own version of “Storybook” style. (c1929, Rejuvenation archives)

After the war, Colonial homes and Colonial lighting remained as popular as ever, but all attempts to stay true to the authentic roots of the style went out the window in the rush to produce fixtures suitable for the countless Colonial-style ranch houses and Cape Cods that blanketed the exploding suburbs of the newly prosperous country. Mid-century modern met Colonial in the ubiquitous flying-saucer kerosene lamps on spring-loaded pulleys hanging over dinette sets in tens of thousands of homes. (c1955, Rejuvenation archives)

The Jasper, c1910-1920

The Dover Court, c1907-1917

The Hamlin, c1910-1920

The Brooklyn, c1917-1927

The Jamison, c1910-1920