Restoring A 100 Year Old German Mountain Climber Hanging Lamp | Antique Lantern Revival

Hi there, welcome to another episode of wood goblin fabrication. Recently at an estate sale I stumbled upon this antique hanging lamp of a mountain climber from Germany. It was hardwired to the house and had been hanging outside for years. I don't think the previous owners really knew what they had here. This thing really needs to be cleaned and maybe a little extra love and attention. Now the wires are rusted and this figure really needs a paint touch-up as well. So let's see what we can do. The first thing I'm going to do is hang the figure using 100 pound picture wire. I'm doing this because I plan on using a hanging socket to rewire the light and I don't want to put unnecessary weight on the electrical components or the decorative rope. My goal here is to preserve as much of the original piece as I can. However, when I researched this piece the climber often came with completely different glass lamp shades which leads me to believe that maybe the glass is not the original. Now getting the piece rewired would have cost me more than I paid for the lamp itself. So in this case I decided to just replace the socket entirely on my own. I found this 15 foot corded socket that is wrapped to look like rope and it just happens to be in the right scale for this climber. Now the socket fit in perfectly and all that was left was to screw the threaded cap back on. Now it works again. Next I needed to dress the climber in the new rope and clean up the old decorative one. After cutting the excess fraying off I melted the tips with a torch to keep it from fraying any further. Since this rope is the wire for the light I didn't let any weight pull on it but I really wanted to keep the illusion that the rope is holding the climber in the air. I found this exact lamp online and I used the reference images to get the rope around the figure as it may have looked in the 1930s when it was possibly made. My research proved inconclusive when it came to finding an exact date so some sellers seem to suggest these were also produced in the 1970s. Next I'm going to address these white marks all over the figure. Some of them might be chips and some of them have a textured surface which leads me to believe that it could be plaster. Before I paint I need to clean the figure with 99% alcohol to remove any surface debris or dust. To be honest I really should have started with this step. When I worked as a fabricator in stop-motion animation I learned that I really love to mix my own paints and I'm pretty lucky that I have a good eye when it comes to matching color. I'm starting with a light brown and adding a little gray to apply lightly on the surface of the areas that need it. This will serve as a base for the dark colors to adhere to. In some cases I'm spotting the chips with the same light brown so later I can blend them in with a darker color. Sometimes I will massage the paint in with my finger so it doesn't have too much of an additive layer. I then apply a light dry brushing of the darker colors to blend everything together and essentially hide my touch-ups. It's pretty satisfying to see the climber get his color and vibrancy back. I really loved this whole process of modernizing this antique lamp and being able to give it another life is truly a thing of pride for me. Just to think this lamp is between 50 and 100 years old and even though it wasn't in great shape when I found it the fact that it's still here is an incredible testament to its character. I can say for sure that this lamp will be loved and looked after as it has become one of my favorite pieces and I would never hang this piece outside. Thanks for watching. If you like this sort of thing go and check out my other videos.