... examples of interesting lamps that today's electrician would find something of a challenge.
My own favourite is the Andromeda or Rocket lamp. This was a 1950s or '60s novelty, made by (if I remember correctly) C J Leek (C & J Leek?), Alma Works, Alma Street, Aston, Birmingham, possibly in their "Celtic" range (it may have been sold as the Celtic lamp). It was a chrome ball containing the bulb, on a chrome base with a little white plastic push on/off switch. Into the top of the lamp fitted either the bayonet fitting version of the Bagley Andromeda figurine, or a stylised space rocket (glassworks not known) with a similar fitting. Not an earth wire in sight!
There would have been little point in supplying lamps with an earth connection in pre-seventies Britain, as most homes were fitted with a 15 amp earthed socket for an electric fire on the skirting somewhere near the fireplace, and sometimes, but not always, one or two 5 amp two-pin sockets for lamps or radios elsewhere in the room. In 1969 I recall a very cheap bedsit in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire where I powered a radio, record player and desk lamp from adaptors plugged in between the central ceiling light socket and the bulb, with the cables hanging down like festoons. Also the 15 amp socket was on a coin-in-the-slot meter, whereas the lighting circuit was free - a not unimportant consideration for a penniless ex-student starting his first proper job. I have happy memories of most of my past, but that short time in Mansfield was dreadful. I was perpetually cold, damp, hungry and lonely. I've never been back - I expect it is quite a pleasant place today.
Any further information on the Birmingham metalbashers would be welcomed. I know I have the address right - it is unforgettable, but I am rather hazy about the rest. ...
The frosted Spiderweb is hard to find.