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Onion Lanterns:
A Glimmer of Old Glows New

By Deirdre Callanan

On December 9, 2005, a freak storm toppled a 60-foot pine at Mary and Bill Sliney’s 100-year-old home. The “ wintercane,” Mary dubbed it, whirled the top half of the tree through the roof and into the master bath. Outside, one branch sheared off the onion lantern that had graced the side door. Once the wind subsided and the needles settled, one of the first things the Slineys did was order a replacement onion lantern.

Certain objects seem quintessentially New England: whale weathervanes, white candles in winter windows, Fourth of July bunting and onion lamps. Stroll Cape and Islands towns and you’ll find them sprinkled through the villages the way kettle ponds and cranberry bogs dot the larger landscape. What is the lure of these 19th-century reproductions?

An interior decorator, Mary Sliney says simply, “There’s something wonderful about them.” For the water side of their home, which is nestled on a slope above the Herring River, the Slineys selected traditional lanterns; the new one on the lane and marsh side has “more of an Asian feel.” Mary loves the bubbled glass, the way the antique bronze finish weathers. “They’re classics, so beautiful for New England. They go with the house, and the spirit of the house loves them. That’s important.”

A tap to the Slineys’ lamp sets it swaying. Imagine a whaling ship or fishing schooner in the early 1800s, heaving on the high seas, its oil-lit lamps swinging just so, smoke wafting. If the spirit of the Slineys’ old Cape house loves it, so do many who honor the memories of bygone days.
Who buys such fixtures? Craig Souza, who owns North Chatham’s Cape Cod Lanterns with wife, Debra, and son Michael, says “Everybody. Before, if you were west of Connecticut or south of Rhode Island, people didn’t know what they were. Now they’re developing a nationwide popularity.”
Vacationers see them. Those with New England ties living elsewhere want them. The Souzas have shipped to California, Kansas, Illinois, Minnesota, the Pacific Northwest and South Dakota.

Bill Stokes makes lanterns at Lanterns of Cape Cod in Orleans. A distinguished graduate in engineering from Duke University, Stokes drawls, “If you can draw it, I can make it.” This Durham, NC native, who claims he works at the shop “for therapy,” says he is pleased to try out a unique piece he’d created for a Woodstock, Conn. customer.

“The lady wants this for her living room,” he says. “She wants a combination nightlight, reading light, and light light. Let’s test it and see if it works.” He plugs in this custom variation on a standard onion lamp, tries all three lighting options and exclaims, “Look at that! She’s going to be ecstatic.”

The shop both hand-fashions lamps and repairs them. “This isn’t machine-run, assembly-line stuff,” says Stokes, gesturing to the hefty hole punch clamped to a table. The space, as much workroom as showroom, is suffused in the soothing strains of Ralph Emery’s “Country Roads.” The tunes spread their own sort of patina atop labor that can be repetitive.

The heart of the lamp is the light. Although 100-watt Edison bulbs are generally used, others can simulate a glass flame or candle’s flicker. The light is mounted inside a glass globe made in Star City, WV. The more traditional squat shape comes in five sizes, measuring from six to 12 inches while the more fully round variety comes in four sizes from eight to 14 inches.

There are also three variations in the glass itself: clear, optic and seedy. The vertical lines in optic glass are not unlike pumpkin ridges. The random bubbles in the seedy glass suggest the imperfections inherent in old globes. The hooped cage, which generally surrounds the globe, the base, “witch’s hat” top, top and bottom collars, and handle are fashioned from sheets and rods of copper or brass.

“It’s a little bit of by gosh and by golly,” explains Souza. He segments rods with a band saw. He likens the rollers used to wringer-washers. The handle and scalloped edging are crimped. The witch’s-hat top starts with a blob that is then stretched and stretched, “not unlike pizza dough.”

Stokes points out the template for the sheeting, which gets sheared or hand clipped and then soldered for shaping. These must then be ground until smooth. Ventilation holes are individually hand punched—all 60 of them. He smiles, “There’s a fine line between cussing it and humoring it.”

His store ships across the states and Canada. It has made four lamps for a Disney film, and a general contractor in Hawaii has so far ordered 11. “They’re an association with the Cape,” surmises Stokes about the interest in them, “but they’re also extremely durable.”
And variable. While the nautical look evokes this area, the styles and sizes can suit virtually any situation: a child’s bedroom, foyers and halls, an exterior portico, flanking a fireplace and a bookcase, and atop a chamfered, red cedar post.

Finishes offer color options as well, although all darken as they weather. Sandwich Lanterns makes all of its pieces in antique brass and sprays sea water from a nearby beach on the finish which, according to craftsman Dick Putnam, “creates a more natural verdigris.” The Sandwich website explains its preference: “We do not recommend polished brass or lacquered. Over time the lacquer wears, the lantern darkens to a spotty finish…this is accelerated near coastal areas…customers become unhappy…and grumpy.”
Nobody we spoke with was grumpy about onion lamps, least of all Lynne Donovan whose Hyannis home holds three. A large, ceiling-mounted lantern casts a diffused halo on her dining room table. “It’s not like a typical chandelier,” remarks Donovan. When an addition was recently completed, she moved the two from her loft outside to flank the door of her new garage. “I never saw them until I moved here. They’re so different, so Cape Cod.”

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