au revoir chandelier

The cast iron pieces that Gutnayer installed in the house left this week. With the help of the state architectural historian Anthony Rubano and Chicago architectural salvage scion Stuart Grannen, we pieced together a bit of the history of the items. The sconces are theatre sconces, hopefully Stuart will find out where from. Gutnayer apparently had four of them, and he took the other two, cut them down and had a base made for the dining room table, which he described as 'turkish bookended marble'. Stuart described the marble on the table as the kind used in building construction, which makes sense given how many leftover construction materials were used in the house! The chandelier was identified by Stuart as probably 1940s, so if it came out of an English Castle (as Gutnayer claimed it did), it must have been a recent purchase. Stuart will pass them on to good homes.

These were still working perfectly with all the bulbs burning after a number of freezing winters.

Harvesting continues!