Seminara table lamp.

 ~ Another weird and historic item just came into my home! ~

In December '25, at the flea market in Stellata -a small and wonderful medieval town near me- I finally found and BOUGHT a dark green table lamp from the '50s, to be placed next to my Olivetti M40 typewriter (My M40 II). I'd wanted one like this for years.

The lamp is a Seminara, made in Turin, Italy. Seminara is a company that was founded in the 1950s, and it produced -and still produces today- various kinds of lamps made of sheet metal or aluminium. 

Seminara link: Seminara - Torino

As I said, my lamp dates back to the '50s. It is made of sheet metal and painted dark green. It was dusty, dirty, slightly rusty and the switch was broken; so I """restored""" the lamp in my garage!!!!!!!

~ Let's take a look at some pictures of the dirty job! ~

The previous owner had replaced the original wire with an "absurd" and ugly one, and the on/off switch was broken, so, I changed the wire and installed a new switch.

Old wiring:

New wiring:

I had to settle for similar, but not identical, wire; the plug is a modern Vimar one.

Testing the lamp:

Fortunately, the old button cap was compatible with the new switch's screw, so it looks 100 % original !

I decided not to disassemble the lamp totally; instead, clean all the parts using a sponge, hot water and soap,  a toothbrush, and compressed air.

~ The iron base: ~

The old base was covered with paper showing the Seminara emblem and a code (1000). I made a new one: ChatGPT helped me recreate a PNG version of the Seminara logo.

I cleaned the iron base from the rust -more or less- and removed the old glue that had been used to attach the paper with the logo. On the upper part of the base, I applied two coats of Owatrol Oil, a special product that stops rust and can be applied directly over it.

This is the new paper with the logo.

I aged it with coffee, but the result were not very good, as you can see:

~ On place, with a new bulb! ~

See you on Sunday!

~ Chris ~