Vintage rain lamp models

There are a large number of models of vintage rain lamps that were made, and several manufacturers who made them.
The following extensive information was supplied by and written by Jonas, with minor additions and corrections by myself.

General

Most lamps have three support columns - one for oil being pumped, one for overflow to drain through, and one to run wires between pump and usually top-mounted light. There are exceptions - I've seen one new model with two, one extremely ornate vintage lamp with four (three ornate supports and one internal, photo below), one early-'80s Taiwan import with a crescent-shaped collonade of six columns plus a seventh for wiring set between the center two and slightly forward, and some small Creators models with only one. Mastercrafters rectangular rain lamp clocks have four.


A huge, vintage, mystery rain lamp of unknown manufacture.

As for companies - Johnson and Creators did seem to be the two masters of the trade, but there were others I'm sure. One, Cheyenne Industries in Little Rock, Arkansas, it seems made lamps similar to Johnson styles. Crown Creative was a manufacturer name on a model bought in 1981 from Sears (marked with a model number and "Sears, Roebuck & Co") which looks very similar to a Cheyenne, which again looks similar to a Johnson. A model like one shown near the top of your main page was found marked Spring Lighting Corp., Los Angeles. The Spring models seem to be similar in end-cap shape and usually have the deeply decorated pressed-wood bands at top and bottom, and usually have a rotary switch on the top cover. I've also seen a number of lamps that look similar in style but are unmarked, such as the golded models (described below) MasterCrafters is a clock company that made some rain lamps with their clocks inside as centerpieces.

Styles: domestic

Creators, Inc.

Creators' Lamp Co. closed around 1992. Their last catalog, of which I have a copy, is a one-page, one-side ad showing five or six models. Over the years, Creators made, as far as I know (unless specified, all have three columns)

The plastic models have metal columns. As for statues and centerpieces, I have seen:

As for statues, I can tell you only this: of the basic two, Diana is standing up and clutching her fabric drape to her chest, while Venus is seated, leaning on a rocklike formation, and is leaning forward. Others were, I think, sculpted in-house, such as the Storm Childern and Water Lady, and I've seen one statue based on Botticelli's painting "The Birth of Venus" showing her standing out of an open shell.

Finishes include:

These were expensive, too, simple models started around $110, the most expensive I have in a late '70s catalog page from a wholesale catalog is the 3 Candles white/gold swag at over $150. Most models, it seems, came in table or swag.

Johnson Industries

Lamp shapes and sizes: too many to list. I've seen many, many variants ranging from small to large, unusual finishes such as antiqued baby blue/gold, white and antiqued white/gold (yes, there are white/gold Johnson models) etc. A few had wooden, turned top and bottom finials, or a wood disc under the table base. Models with a harp for a table lamp shade exist, as do some really odd models including: Glass table. A three-arm fitting above the swag-hung lamp holds three chains which extend down and outward to hooks supporting a small circle of glass beneath the lamp, to act as a tiny table. At two spots in each table-support chain are cylindrical wood segments with hook ends... Wall lamp. Swag lamp hung form ornate bracket to be wall-mounted... Double lamp. Two swag lamps hung from chains of different lengths from an ornate two-arm support which itself hangs on a swag chain. In the one I saw, one lamp contained Diana, the other David (I've since decided this is a Spring-made lamp) Large ornate model. The top and bottom brass finials each have four scrolled hooks with cut glass chandelier drops. They, too, made a model with wooden columns, a simpler style column than Creators but it has a bit less of a "Mediterranean" feel to it. One of the large Johnson models with the ornate pressed-wood decorative bands sold recently on eBay and the seller commented it was bought new at Montgomery Ward in 1975 for approx. $150. Johnson statues I've seen (I've never seen a Johnson catalog, ad or model sheet) seem to include many Creators types like Diana, Venus, Three Graces, and a more detailed Old Country Mill in full color with red bricks etc. as well as Ebisu the Oriental god of fishing (happily doing exactly that, I believe he moves side to side but I'm not certain) and one containing a full color windmill with sails that revolve as oil is fed up a tube in the back. They, too, made chrome models with clear goddesses. Most smaller Johnson models had one row of lines, every other line straight or gently slanted. Medium size models often had all slanted lines, and the big models had one row straight and one inner row slanted, both of these usually used deeply slanted lines for the "hourglass" or "basketweave" effect, which in my opinion makes the entire group of lines seem to be rotating. Some small, slender models had only vertical lines. As far as I know, all Johnson lamps were constructed entirely of metal - and while Creators commonly used plastic statures, Johnson seems to have used cast plaster and/or pressed carved wood. As far as I've seen, all Johnson and similar (Crown Creative, Cheyenne) had three columns, as do all Spring-style models I've seen.

All of the above have a single light in the top. All are medium Edison base, with one exception: the two styles of Creators' single column models have one candelabra-base bulb set to one side of the column.

Gilded models

Other makes: The gilded models are HUGE. I have one that is nearly three feet tall and feels like it weighs eighty pounds. Most of these are swag lamps, usually decorated with bands of fake jewels (sometimes with a strand of them up each side of each column) or with a row of gaudy metal flowers around the top and bottom edge. They seem to be entirely gilded with gold leaf, with three polished brass columns - they have no light in the top and, instead, contain a circular fluorescent bulb of the Gro-lite type set around the base of the statue, which puts off a greenish light and seems to give the statue and oil a hint of glow. This style always has a clear resin goddess. These have two rows of lines, both closely spaced - outer is vertical, inner is tight hourglass weave. I had to restring mine, and it was a lot of work, but rewarding. Another that is similar in shape to the second of the above is white with small pieces of gold flowery edge decoration, and has The Birth Of Venus as the statue. While these two are similar in body shape, the first of the above is shaped more like those mentioned immediately below. An antique brass one has been seen, too, of the fluorescent ring light type. It seems that, in these, the space normally reserved for a light in the top was filled with more greenery.

Other fully gilded models I've seen include a very tall floor model, having a center column attached at top and bottom with three clusters of three electric candles each at three levels inside (one group at bottom) and a hanging model with ornate goddess and three down-pointing candelabra bulbs in ornate "flowers" in the top, both have golded, swirly pressed wood bands top and bottom. One floor model is a square grandfather clock - the electric clock has three fake weights, and there's a 3-candle cluster in the bottom.

One gilded model marked "DecoRain" has a Johnson large-model shape and a switch on top, having one row vertical and one row inclined lines. Another identical, unmarked unit is a floor lamp, 68" tall, with a sitting lady statue (about 12" tall) in the lower part, and two rows of lines, both gently inclined but the inner more than the outer. One I've seen is similar to the first of these two, but tabletop, in antique brass with a regular Diana goddess.

MasterCrafters

MasterCrafters clock company, makers of many of the animated plastic clocks (such as those with a flickering fireplace in the base) made a few, too. Two styles are rectangular, one with only greenery, the other with an Old Mill. These are table models and came in white or gold, the Old Mill also came in gold "wrinkle paint" (they called it Gold Nugget). There are simple cylindrical gold models, table or swag, with greenery and a clock inside. And last there are antique bronze table and swag models with a clock, that look like shortened versions of the Creators lamp (style **). There are bits of evidence that Lava Corp, Florence Art Co. (maker of glitter lamps) Creators' and MasterCrafters, all located in Chicago, collaborated in various ways.

Styles: foreign

Then, there are a few imports, including my odd lamp. It came with bonsai tree greenery and the statue, like those in many import models, revolves. It is the one with a crescent of six+one columns mentioned above, and the black top and base have that "wrinkle paint" finish commonly seen on 1930s metal items Very ornate. Another I've seen has a white plastic Diana, two columns, and base/top done in a plastic made to look like rough wood complete with cut branch stumps and knots.

As well as the Creators, Johnson etc. in the US, I believe there were versions made in the UK, possibly Italy, and I've seen one bought in Mexico in a Mexican restaurant in Texas, as well as many models made since the early 80s in various: Taiwan, China, etc. etc. The two styles sold by Hippie Heaven are the common import styles most often seen.

A note on these imports: The common smaller style has a revolving statue and comes in swag versions. Variants include gold or antique bronze finishes with a gold or polished brass colored statue (with one arm raised) which revolves. Other variants include a lighted clear stature, a color-changing spray of plastic fiber-optic flowers, an Old Country Mill, a white version containing the Virgin Mary, and a black version containing a gold panther standing on a cliff. These last two are commonly offered by mail-order giant Fingerhut. The larger style sold by Hippie Heaven, I've seen in person, and it's a fairly accurate reproduction of the most common '80s Creators model, and contains Diana, using the Antique Bronze finish. I've only seen tabletop ones. They're expensive, about $125, approx. same as Creators models were. "Grandma Fern's Rain Lamp" is this model in white/gold, and it was this shape that Creators made until they closed. I had one of these, but I traded it to another shop (plus a bit of money) for the same shape in Antique Bronze with the Old Country Mill, and I love that one.

And then, there's the ornate lamp in the first photo on this page.

Lace fountains

Last, let me note that water versions in large scale (called "lace fountains") once existed. The Royal British Columbia Museum had two of these, in linear curtains, with changing green and clear lights. Though the water won't "bead" down the 1/8" clear plastic cables, it does sheet down, and up close or at a distance you can see it moving.

This museum is located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. According to one Tiki Central forum member (Tikiwahine) who called this museum on 1-20-06, both these fountains were removed around 1990. In an e-mail response on 1-25-06, Barry Forrester, Trades & Exhibits Manager for that museum, called these "rain curtains" and said he could not find any photos of them. He gave the following description of them:

"They were plastic tubes which had water pumped up through the middle of them to the top where it ran back down over the outside of the tubes. There was a large pumping system in the basement which supplied the water. The tubes were suspended about 18 feet from the floor and there was a wall of tubes at each end of the lobby with a large carving between them."

If anybody happens to have a photo of these fountains, such as on a postcard or in a museum souvenir book, I'd love to post such a photo here, so please let me know.

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Created: January 25, 2006
Updated: April 18, 2007