Alison Sofield, Volunteer Collections
It is hard to imagine life today without electricity though with the recent and ongoing weather events many of us were unfortunately able to find out.
The use of electricity in our homes is a relatively recent innovation, the latter half of the nineteenth century saw electric streetlights appear in England. Here in New Zealand, Reefton, on the West coast of the South Island, north of Greymouth was first town to be electrified in 1888. Go Reefton!!
Prior to the development of electric power candles and oil lamps were the norm for lighting, cooking and heating activities relied on fire. I remember well cooking on a very large coal range which also heated water.
Candles presented problems with their open flames, the difficulty of transporting them from room to room and the inevitable wax drippings. Simple candle holders, remember the nursery rhyme about Wee Willy Winky, were in common use. However a more permanent style of candle holder evolved, known as the sconce, which were attached to a wall or in some cases to a piano. Sconces had been around since the Middle Ages and were usually found in churches holding a flaming torch or oil lamp. The word sconce comes from the Old French word “esconce” meaning lantern or hiding place.
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The Museum has a fine collection of sconces, mostly in brass or iron in a variety of styles to complement the architectural trends of the time, notably Art Nouveau or Art Deco. Some sconces have very elaborate and complex designs demonstrating a high level of skill. One company manufacturing sconces had a logo of an acorn for the Acorn Brass Company in Derbyshirre, England. Many of the sconces held by the Museum are not marked in any way which would suggest that they were made by companies as a sideline to their main business such as a brass foundry or a lighting company.
Sconces come in four parts, the wall plate which can be screwed to the wall, the arms that could be pivoted away from the plate, sometimes a single arm or even two arms, the circular candle holder and the wax dripper which could be removed by unscrewing the candle holder.
These early sconces diffused the light towards the ceiling and were not really satisfactory for reading. Further development of lighting saw overhead lights such as the candelabra come into being. Wall lights are today still called sconces though their design is much more versatile, so that light can be directed to where it is needed, for example lights above a bed.
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The advent of electricity soon put paid to candle sconces, replacing them with light bulbs instead of candles.
A number of the brass sconces were donated to the Museum by A.R. Staples.
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