Vintage American Modernist Copper "Glow Lamp" Designed By Ruth and William Gerth for Chase Brass & Copper Co., Circa 1930s. Featuring an orb copper body created by Ruth Gerth’s transformation of a toilet float paired with a conical copper clip shade. Black Bakelite rotary switch. Stamped “Chase USA” on the underside of the base. Originally offered in copper, chrome or combination of half copper and white paint or chrome with black paint. This lamp (in chrome) is in the Cooper Hewitt Museum’s permanent collection.

This style stayed in production until the late 1930s. Henry Sabin Chase founded the Chase Brass & Copper Co. of Waterbury Connecticut in 1876. Ruth became an important part of the company’s identity, planning its offices, gift shop, and showroom displays for its Manhattan office at Chase Tower, now the Mercantile Building.

“Gerth grew up in Illinois and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. From the age of seventeen she had a passion for industrial design and she ultimately became the first woman president of the Artists Guild, an organization devoted to the rights of freelance artists. Her most prominent client was the Chase Brass and Copper Company, based in Waterbury, Connecticut. Until the 1930s, Chase primarily produced copper and brass fittings for industrial clients; it entered the consumer market with designs by a number of modernist designers such as Russel Wright, Rockwell Kent, and Walter von Nessen. Along with these luminaries, Gerth helped situate Chase as one of the preeminent producers of American art deco metal objects, many of which were crafted from recycled plumping materials also produced by the firm.

Chase’s art deco designers can be considered early proponents of upcycling, a design trend that really emerged towards the end of the twentieth century to give existing objects new life by creatively repurposing them in new and often surprising ways, elevating their artistic merit. Gerth’s Glow Lamp does just that by taking the toilet float, itself innately modern as a key component of indoor plumbing, and transforming it into a shining art deco object. The copper float also inspired another of Gerth’s designs, the “Niagara” watering can, and Chase copper pipes were chrome-plated and twisted into her Fiesta Candlesticks, also in Cooper Hewitt’s collection. Although Chase’s decision to reuse existing products and recycle surplus materials had more to do with cutting costs than environmental conservation, Gerth’s sense of economy, and her sense of humor, inspired a progressive approach to modern design and materials that continues to this day.”

- Cooper Hewitt Museum

Condition: Good vintage condition, overall finish variation with patinated surface. Some denting + light scratching to body (as pictured). Presents and functions well. Would recommend use of an LED bulb.

Specs: 8 1/8” Height, 5 3/8” Diameter, 4” Base Diameter