A wall light is a light fitting mounted directly onto a wall rather than suspended from the ceiling or placed on furniture. Wall lights provide soft ambient light, illuminate pictures and architectural features, and help create a layered lighting scheme within a room.
The earliest wall lights were candle sconces, often with a polished metal or mirrored back plate to reflect the flame, and girandoles combining a mirror with candle branches were fashionable in the eighteenth century. Gas lighting brought swan-neck and swing-arm brackets, many of which were later converted to electricity, while the twentieth century introduced picture lights and a wide range of decorative electric designs. Antique wall lights are made in brass, bronze, gilt metal, giltwood, wrought iron, silver plate and crystal, frequently in pairs or sets. Matching pairs and larger sets are particularly sought after for symmetry on either side of a fireplace, mirror or doorway. All antique wall lights should be professionally rewired and installed by a qualified electrician.
