Right Use of Period Light Fixtures : Placement of reproductions should reflect style of the era.

Most people would never put a fluorescent light fixture over a Victorian dining table. Yet, more common errors such as hanging a chandelier over a Colonial dining table are just as ludicrous, says Roger W. Moss.

It’s also incorrect to hang a small Colonial chandelier in an entryway, says Moss, author of “Lighting for Historic Buildings,” published by the National Trust for Historic Preservation ($12.95). The soft-bound book describes how early American homes were lit and lists suppliers of authentic reproductions.

“Chandeliers were almost never used in homes in the Colonial period and certainly would not have been put in a foyer where every time you opened the door, the candles would blow out,” says Moss, executive director of the Athenaeum, a research library in Philadelphia.

To install lighting that could never have actually been used is to subtly undermine the character of a room, he says, and once you become informed, the flaws become glaringly obvious.

Hang From a Pipe

Moss, who teaches in the preservation program of the University of Pennsylvania, says one of the most common mistakes is hanging a reproduction “gas” chandelier from a chain. In the old days a gas chandelier hung from a pipe, which was the conduit for the gas.

Another common mistake is to place period lighting so high that interesting details are lost. Lower the fixture.

Moss offers some lighting guidelines for period homes in the Colonial style: Use electric candlesticks, lanterns and wall sconces.

A very suitable treatment would be to place wall sconces at either side of a mirror. Mirrors and gilt were common because their shiny surfaces reflected the small amount of artificial light.

Don’t hang a chandelier in a New England Colonial with low ceilings if you want to create an authentic atmosphere.

“You need ceilings of at least 10 feet for a chandelier to look right,” Moss says, adding that normally chandeliers and gaseliers were hung 6 1/2 feet from the floor.

There was no artificial lighting in Colonial bedrooms. People either did without or carried a candlestick. Today practicality dictates some lighting, but use wall sconces rather than a ceiling fixture. Bedside lamps should be understated. One of wood and tin would be in keeping with the room’s feeling.

Although there are numerous reproduction fixtures, the era from 1800 to 1840 is not well represented. During this time, whale oil lit the homes of middle- and upper-income Americans, and light fixtures were based on neoclassical designs then popular.

On the other hand, those who are furnishing a typical post-Civil War American farmhouse are in luck. They will find many reproductions as well as authentic kerosene fixtures.

Kerosene lamps, lanterns, sconces and chandeliers were used well into the 20th Century, Moss says, since many areas were dark until the 1930s when the Roosevelt administration electrified the farm via the Rural Electrification Administration.

Electricity started coming into homes in the late 19th Century. But early service was unreliable, so lights that could work on gas or electricity were popular. Both antiques and copies are illustrated in Moss’s book.

The early 20th-Century bungalow with its attic dormer and broad front porch was usually electrified. Appropriate lamps and fixtures, readily available in copies, were designs by the California architects Greene & Greene and Frank Lloyd Wright and the mission style inspired by the Stickley Brothers.

If you find old lamps or have a house with original fixtures, you can enhance them with old-fashioned carbon filament bulbs. They create a softer light than today’s tungsten bulbs, Moss says.

Kyp-Go, an Illinois firm, has been making carbon filament bulbs for 26 years, according to owner Robert Kyp, who has supplied bulbs for historic restorations and movie sets.

Cost of the bulbs varies from about $3 to $10 each, depending on wattage, shape and style. He stocks six styles, including an exact copy of a bulb made by Thomas Edison in the 1890s. The company will also make special orders.

For a free catalogue, write Kyp-Go, 20 N. 17th St., St. Charles, Ill. 60174.