In this video INC. Magazine features one of Olde Good Things’ expert curators, Jim DiGiacoma. He gives advice as to how to develop the “science of opportunity” with clients. Follow this simple strategy and you won’t go wrong developing a winning brand.
Designing with Nautical Lighting
With a vast offering of lighting from industrial to elegant, designers find Olde Good Things a prime go-to shop for authentic original fixtures. Of late, one of the favorites has been unique maritime lights salvaged from ocean carriers of long ago. Here you see featured just one re-use of a honeycomb shade fox spotlight, now accenting an ultra-modern living area.
Nautical lighting offers a mix of industrial and eclectic, especially due to the use of rich-looking metals like bronze and copper, often used due to their resistance to the elements. This line of lighting makes for great exterior uses, especially the passage and deck lighting. One of the favorites is the gooseneck bronze sconces. Many of our customers have purchased these to adorn their porches, carriage houses, and garages.
We also have sconces available in cast aluminum, if you prefer a more subtle color and industrial look.
Take a look at some of our new arrivals and shop our website and stores to see the inventory.
Whatever your preference, you have some choices now at Olde Good Things. The lights above are high-quality replicas of the original marine boat lights. Please visit our nautical lighting category to view all old and new nautical lighting that is available.
Working at Home? Custom Desks to Accommodate
Today’s world has changed immensely and we at Olde Good Things are attempting to adapt according to everyone’s needs. Now that many Americans are working are home, we have developed a unique line of custom desks and tables from reclaimed wood to accommodate the need. These desks are simple in design and sustainable in nature. Our woods include reclaimed white pine, old maple, oak flooring, and live edge and straight walnut from fallen trees. They can be delivered in custom sizes to meet the specific need. Also, options include with or without drawers, which can be handmade or made from reclaimed bins. Many base options are available wooden and metal.
You can find many options on our web site and see in this gallery just a few of the options available.
If you must work at home, why not do so with a desk you love and which is carefully crafted by the artisans at Olde Good Things.
Here are samples of just a few of them:
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Handmade Live Edge Walnut Desk with Storage Drawers
View online
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Handmade Pine Desk with 2 Wooden Bins
View online
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Industrial Flooring Machine Leg Desk with Three Drawers
View online
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Industrial Flooring Top Table with Hair Pin Legs
View online
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Narrow Reclaimed Pine Desk
View online
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Pine & Metal Custom Desk with Shelves & Drawer
View online
Shop our Farm Table Etc. category for ideas for your custom wood desk.
Customer Showcase – Beach Side Boat House
Built in 1926, the boathouse is located on Long Island Sound and sits just steps off of Jordan Cove in Waterford, CT. Owned by a single family until recently, it operated as a functioning nautical storage shed and place for engine repair it’s entire life. Ancient patchwork, an original stone wall, and the occasional hand-scratched date can be found when looking inside. The new owners have worked hard to preserve all the perfect patina while adding touches of their own to make the perfect summer hideout. A hand-carved mermaid bust, vintage GE refrigerator, wooden lobster traps, and a slew of buoys encircle the beautifully crafted cedar and steel counter-height picnic table built by OGT.
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The cedar planks used for this table were reclaimed from a 100-year-old water tower in New York City. As you can imagine the patina from weathering for years atop a high building make for a rich, rustic finish. More of this cedar is available at this time. So, if you are looking for a rustic outdoor table with a metal base or one that will be exposed to the elements, contact our table shop for a custom size table quote. You can also purchase the wood itself, click here.
Thank you to Erica Diskin of Assembly Design Studios for sharing her project with us.
Notable Building Artifacts – At Olde Good Things
Click to read the article, then go to page 46.
Recently American Way Magazine featured Olde Good Things in the “Talking Shop” section with some of our many famous building artifacts.
Bright stained glass panels by renowned modern artist Robert Sowers were carefully removed from JFK American Airlines Terminal 8 over a three month period and preserved for resale. Chandeliers, hardware, kitchenware, and much more from the Waldorf Astoria at 301 Park Avenue are still available and can be purchased here. So many more notable treasures have been reclaimed by Olde Good Things including millwork and paneled rooms from both of the fanciful penthouses of NYC philanthropists and heiresses Huguette Clark and Marjorie Merriweather Post.
For more information on these exclusive listings, view the links below.
An Iconic Stained Glass Window from JFK International Airport
Olde Good Things Salvage from the Historic Waldorf Astoria New York City
Philadelphia Civic Center Frieze Finds a New Home in Bayonne New Jersey
Prop Rentals at Olde Good Things
Not only does Olde Good Things provide the widest variety of architectural elements to both wholesale and retail markets, but many set designers also find and rent unique items for movies, television and magazine publications.
These set designers from both the East and West Coast have been renting from us for many years. We’ve provided props for high profile films, tv series, commercials, and documentaries. We’ve provided doors, furniture, lighting, and hardware for various productions of “Saturday Night Live”, “Law and Order”, “The Good Wife” and “FBI Most Wanted”, the list goes on and on. Production Houses such as NETFLIX, CBS, Paramount Pictures and Silver Cup Studios are just a few of many customers who have discovered that perfect piece to make their scenes authentic and time appropriate. Many designers setting up for events at the Jacob Javitz Center including Fashion Week Runway Shows, find perfect items to spruce up their studio sets on a short term basis.
Since there are still many designers out there who don’t realize that we provide rentals on both a short and long term basis, we are showcasing here a few designs.
For an event at the Greenpoint Waterfront, set designer, Laurel St. Romaine from Dead Flowers brought in 500 square feet of sod and made their own lawn with rented trees and plants for an event. For the furnishings, they were able to find various funky chairs from Olde Good Things.
Also, Yuval Kagan from STAMP Event Management pulled together this amazing set for an event, renting six large crystal chandeliers from Olde Good Things.
Our rental rates generally are 30% of the retail price. We rent anywhere from time periods as short as one day to up to months at a time, prorating the cost. Let us know your needs, and we’ll be glad to work with you. For more information email us at [email protected]
Olde Good Things, New York Stores
Brick & Mortar Stores
Olde Good Things had its mere beginnings in NYC during the heyday of the Chelsea Antique Market in the early 90’s and then opened its first retail store on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn in 1995. Today, 24 years later, you can visit our four brick and mortar retail locations, including one “pop-up” store at 71 Eighth Avenue between West 13th and 14th Street. Visit each one location and see if we don’t live up to our “humble boast” of being “the most interesting stores in New York City!” Our largest New York Store located conveniently near Union Square. This store features the largest assortment of original hardware. Our Upper West Side, Broadway location has the best assortment of marble mantels and large chandeliers and our Lower East Side, Bowery location has a wide assortment of smaller practical original lighting. Our pop-up store, 8th Ave has an interesting variety of decorative items and furniture. Come see us at each location to get the full Olde Good Things experience!
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Salvaged Treasures
Each store has a personality of its own, with a variety of original lighting, architectural elements including mantels, doors, glass, hardware as well as our unique line of altered antique furnishings including mirrors, tables and shelving. You will also find vintage, industrial and mid-century original furniture and decorative furnishings. Presently featured in each store is a wide assortment of items reclaimed from the famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel, which is now undergoing a major renovation. You will find from this New York City landmark, original marble and wooden mantels from for instance, the “Cole Porter Suite.” You will also find doors from the “Marilyn Monroe Suite” and lighting from almost every suite and hallway as well as conference and ballroom lighting including chandeliers from the Starlight Room. Kitchen and service items available including flatware, silver plated serving bowls and platters, many with the Waldorf signature. Special feature is the bar reclaimed from the famous Bull & Bear restaurant, if interested ask here. Too many interesting things to list!
Reclaimed Vintage Wired Glass
Olde Good Things also specializes in vintage wire glass reclaimed from windows and skylights of industrial buildings and skyscrapers. You will find samples of this glass at each of the stores. Special feature at this time is huge sheets (4 ft x 7 ft) of clear chicken wire glass from Rockefeller Center. Ask about our special service of frosting this glass as well. Visit www.oldegoodglass.com for more information.
More Ways to Shop
Olde Good Things has been reclaiming architectural items for a quarter of a century. If you need doors, plumbing, stained glass, a special doorknob or plate, you could very well find exactly what you are looking for in one of these stores. But if not, don’t be dismayed, we have two vast warehouses in Scranton, Pennsylvania chock full of every architectural item imaginable as well as an extensive website with over 16,000 items at www.oldegoodthings.com. Your salesperson at the retail store, can help you find what you are looking for and possibly even arrange to bring it in on our truck that goes back and forth at least once a week.
NYC Show Truck
Have you ever seen the most interesting truck in New York? Follow the lion to one of our stores today.
Hope to see you soon!
National Warehouse Slideshow
You’ve probably heard of “the most interesting stores in New York” if you’ve ever visited one of our NYC Olde Good Things locations. Well you ain’t seen nothin’ til you set foot in “the most interesting warehouse in Pennsylvania” which is chock full of reclaimed architectural items and furnishings ready for a new home. Take a look at the slide show. (This is just one of our Scranton PA locations, the other one is even bigger!) With Spring arriving it’s a great time to pay a visit!
National Warehouse
400 Gilligan Street
Scranton, PA 18508
570-341-7668
888-233-9678
Mon – Sat 9 am to 6 pm
Sun 10 am to 6 pm
Directions
Over a Century of History with Industrial Holophane Light Fixtures
Original factory Holophanes grace this dining room table
Vintage industrial light fixtures are a sleek lighting accessory for any contemporary home or office. Durable Holophane lighting, in particular, carries with it a powerful history of scientific innovation and industrial applications. “Holophane” comes from the Greek words Holos and Phainein, translated “to appear completely luminous”.
The Holophane Glass story begins in the 1890s when French electric scientist Andre Blondel and Greek engineer Spiridion Psaroudaki covered a glass globe in the laboratory with horizontal prisms positioned to manipulate light. They were awarded a U.S. patent in 1893, when Holophane fixtures were already being manufactured in France and exported across Europe and the U.S.
Otis A. Mygatt acquired the rights for the illumination technology in 1896 and founded the Holophane Company in London. Holophane Glass Company was incorporated in America in 1898, with its first headquarters on Broadway in New York.
Huge strides were made in illumination technology during the Progressive Era of the early 1900s. Holophane Glass Company employed specialized engineers to study the distribution of light. The result was an innovative line of globes and reflectors made of clear crystal glass with prisms constructed to direct rays of light both downward and outward. When General Electric partnered with Holophane in 1911, they combined the classic products with a frosted line of Fostoria glassware.
The company began providing “scientific illumination” to industrial facilities. During the 1920s, Holophane Glass developed “hibay” lighting for the economical illumination of large factories, including the Chevrolet Motor Co. stockroom in Tarrytown, NY, and Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing in East Pittsburgh.
Careful removal of factory Holophane lights
Holophane’s influence continued through 1930s, lighting industrial areas and famous spots like Radio City Studios, NY, The House of Lords in England, and Westminster Abbey during the coronation of King George VI. During WWII, Holophane lit war plants and airplane hangars around the world. By 1945, Holophane lighting had penetrated into the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Library of Congress.
Holophane Glass Company coined the term “illumineering” based on the visual and physiological needs of the human eye, a concept that is still pervasive in lighting technology. Through the present day, Holophane continues to research and develop street lighting, fluorescent commercial lighting, contemporary outdoor illumination, and lighting for emergency applications.
Vintage Holophane light fixtures are very popular in upscale auction houses and industrial reclamation circles. The trademark of these “luminaires” is a borosilicate glass refractor or reflector. The prisms direct light both up and down, which is perfect for illuminating a space without glare or dark spots.
Olde Good Things has acquired many of these lights over the years and many commercial and retail customers have purchased these reclaimed lights and put them to use in new applications. Here you see one customer
Olde Good Things was fortunate to retrieve a collection of Holophane pendant lighting from a century-old plant in New Jersey. These industrial beauties range in size from 15” to 21” in diameter.
Holophane Lighting evenly throws light for maximum illumination
Visit Olde Good Things to discover more architectural treasures.
Inquire about other sizes available at [email protected]. 888-233-9678.
Credits:
http://www.holophane.com/company/history/index.asp
https://www.justcollecting.com/miscellania/antique-holophane-lighting
Design Element of the Week: Massive Bonze Room Divider
Here’s Mid-Century Modern design at it’s height. This solid cast bronze room divider has alternating pod shaped sculpted bronze parts in a thick frame and was conceived in the minds of a group of architects in 1959. It was constructed starting in July 1962 and completed in 1964.
Completion of this massive cast bronze room divider took place in 1964
Design and planning consultants Victor Gruen worked with King & King Architects and coordinating architects Gordon Schoper Ketcham-Miller-Arnold. This amazing room divider can be assembled as one long unit or two sections on an angle. Total length 209 inches, it consists of two sections, one 101 inch long and one 108 inch long.
When it was first installed at our Madison Location
Originally this piece was salvaged from the lobby of the Public Safety Building in Syracuse, New York. Below you see it in this original setting.
This amazing piece can be seen at our Madison Avenue location at 149 Madison Avenue in New York City.
For more information or to inquire click here.
