Moe Lighting Lanterns

Presenting a lovely vintage gold and brass 4 light lantern from circa 1955. Lovely restored Moe Lighting Lantern from circa 1955. Made in the U.S.A. 4 bulb Lantern in full functional condition and sympathetically restored to its original beauty. The Lantern is gilt metal and brass and is covered in gold leaf. It has been recently re-gilted. The top finial of the lantern is beautifully cast with scrolling arms and handles. There are 5 glass panels edged in brass. The interior working bulb platform is on a tilt central column or lever that tilts with the movement of the lantern in the wind. Both the top and bottom parts of the lantern have a pierced gallery and the base has a removeable plate with a final to access the bulbs on the interior. The interior has a label hidden from view under the bulb base (see photos) confirming that the Lantern was made by Moe Light of Fort Atkinson Wisconsin a Division of Thomas Industries. This helps us date the piece as Moe Lighting was acquired by Thomas Industries in 1953. We are of the opinion that this piece date from the mid 1950’s. A beautiful addition to any home of style !! Thomas Industries was formed in a 1953 merger of two companies–a lighting fixture manufacturer and the maker of electrical spraying machines–both of which came into being in the late 1920s. The unlikely marriage of these two product lines was the cornerstone of what would become the company’s two core businesses: lighting fixtures and air compressors/pumps. The lighting fixture side of Thomas Industries traces its history back to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and two brothers: Henrik and Ole Moe. The Moe Brothers, together with a number of other entrepreneurs, owned the Moe-Bridges Co., a lighting fixture manufacturer formed in 1919. As a result of friction among the Moe-Bridges management, however, the Moe brothers were frozen out of the company in the late 1920s by the majority owners. Deciding to stay with the industry they knew, the Moes formed another lighting fixture company called Moe Brothers Manufacturing. Henrik’s two sons joined the business in the early 1930s, and in 1938, the company moved its operations from Milwaukee to Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. While the Moe brothers were building their lighting fixture business, the Electric Sprayit Company–the forerunner to Thomas Industries’ compressor and pump division–was also testing its wings. In 1928, the Electric Sprayit Company was formed in Chicago “to manufacture, buy, and sell electrical spraying machines, blowers, air compressors, mechanical, and mercantile devices.” In a curious twist of fate, in 1934 the Electric Sprayit Company acquired Moe-Bridges, the company that had forced out the Moe brothers, and moved from Chicago into the Moe-Bridges plant in Milwaukee. In 1939, Electric Sprayit moved its operations again, this time to Sheboygan, Wisconsin. During World War II, both companies stopped making their standard product lines in order to produce materials for the war effort. At the close of the war, in 1946, Moe Brothers received a large contract from Sears to produce household pressure cookers. Although the company had not previously manufactured pressure cookers, the large stamping presses they had obtained for the war gave them the production capabilities for the job. The brothers planned to use sales revenues from the pressure cooker contract to return to the lighting fixture business. Unfortunately, Sears rescinded the company’s contract due to a product malfunction. In the aftermath of the contract loss, pressured by the bank to repay existing debt, the Moe brothers decided to sell the company. Moe Brothers was purchased in 1948 by a Louisville investment group headed by Lee Thomas. Thomas, the former president of Ekco Products in Chicago, had recently purchased a small saw business in Louisville and was looking for further investment opportunities. His new purchase was renamed Moe Light, and a national advertising campaign was launched to promote residential lighting fixtures. Two years later, Moe Light expanded by opening a new residential lighting factory in Kentucky and acquiring the Los Angeles-based Star...