Sears Fostoria Porcelain Beam Light w/Flowers, c1940

Description

"Dainty" ivory-tone porcelain fixtures with colorful floral accents like this single-bulb "beam light" example were common from the 1930s into the 1950s, often sold as replacements for earlier, dimmer fixtures from the decades before. They were also excellent for the smaller rooms and lower ceilings of the time. Many were distributed by Sears and Montgomery Ward by mail order, offered in complete coordinating families. This one is from the Fostoria Group by Sears circa 1940 (a second-generation design that closely resembled the Dresden series from a few years earlier).

Porcelain light fixtures first rose in prominence during the late 1920s. Their "sanitary" character, easy styling, range of colors, low costs, and material availability made them very popular during the Depression and World War II years, and they remained a mass-market staple well into the 1950s. Most were intended for kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms, and they frequently featured exposed bulbs and painted flowers or metallic pin striping.