Repairing and restoring an old Bankers Lamp

A little while ago, I was able to get a hold of an old Emeralite (bankers lamp) from Ebay for a very decent price, however, the lamp was in rough shape and was in need for some restoration before it could take its rightful place on my desk. It took some time and effort, but I was really happy with the end result, and I am now the proud owner of an original Emeralite.

Buying the lamp

After losing out in a couple of auctions, I was almost ready to give it up for a while, but I decided to take a swing at one lamp, an Emeralite 8734 B model from the late 1920s, that had been listed a while without being sold.

From the pictures I could tell that the lamp was in pretty rough condition, in addition to the glass shade being broken, it had some structural damage at the base. Before making an offer, I contacted the seller, asking whether he had the pieces for the broken shade, which he had, and he informed me that it was 2 pieces that would make the shade complete.

Intrigued, I decided to make an offer of $50, which was way below the asking price, justifying the significant discount on the basis of the broken shade and base. To my delight, the offer was accepted, and I received the lamp some 2 weeks later.

What needed repair

As soon as I got the lamp, I got to work identifying everything that needed repair and restoration, which included the glass shade, the base, the socket and the cord.

The most striking flaw was the glass shade, but since I had the 2 missing pieces, I decided to try gluing them back on. I searched through the local hardware store and found a  softer, silicon type of glue that was applicable for glass.

The structural damage on the base was in one of the two metal pieces in the junction between the flat, weighted part of the base, and the pole which gives the lamp its height. In fact, a large part of the metal piece had broken off, which left the lamp crooked.

Because this metal piece was rather structurally complex, I quickly decided not to try to repair it, as it would have been way too much work. In addition to the structural damage, many areas of the lamp were pretty dirty, covering the original golden brass with a blackish layer of hardened dirt.

Because the dirt and rust had been on there for a while, simply washing it wouldn’t be enough, therefore, I got a can of metal cleaner and rust-remover, and a set of metal brushes, hoping it would do the trick.

Luckily, the bulb socket was original, however, the lamp was equipped with a turnable knob switch, and not the classic pull-chain switch, therefore I went online and ordered a replacement.

Finally, because the US wall plug would not work where I live, I had to change the wall plug, and possibly the whole cord. Luckily, the original cord was in good shape which meant I only had to replace the wall plug, which I could find in a local hardware store.

Dismantling the lamp

After carefully removing the shade I got to work dismantling the whole lamp, piece by piece. I started off removing the socket to check whether I would have to trim off some of the insulation and wiring to get new fresh ends, but they looked OK.

The outer shell of the socket was pretty dirty and in need of some cleaning, but worse was the cardboard insulation which separates the inner socket piece from the outer shell. It was almost like it had been burnt, in that it was almost completely black, like a piece of coal, and crumbled by even the lightest touch.

Because of this, I had to order an entirely new socket (which includes the cardboard insulation), as simply getting the inner socket piece with the pull-chain switch would leave me with that awful piece of burnt cardboard. I got a relatively cheap one off amazon which did the trick.

The rest was pretty straightforward, starting with the loosening of the nut underneath the base of the shade which allows you to remove the weighted part of the base. Followed by another nut fastened underneath the broken piece at the junction between the flat weighted base and the pole/neck.

Removing both these nuts allowed me to completely remove the part of the base that holds the shade, from the rest of the base, which revealed that the bolt is a long metal rod that extends through the whole lamp, and to which the parts of the base is attached.

After removing the old wall plug, I was able to thread the wire through all the parts, separating all the pieces.  It was at this point I recognized that they were all in need of some cleaning, as the core metal bolt was very rusty, including the nuts, but that would have to wait, as I decided to move on to gluing the shade back together.

Trying to glue the broken shade

As mentioned earlier, I got a type of softer silicon-type glue for trying to put the shade back together. Although there were some small glass pieces that were missing (too small to be able to glue back on anyway), I was confident that I would get a decent result.

First of all, I wanted to make sure that the shade was clean so that the glue could properly attach to the glass, making the reattachment solid. For this, I simply used a glass cleaner spray and a cloth I had at home.

I then prepared a surface of old newspapers to prevent any spilling of glue onto my desk and got to work. When applying the glue, I decided to apply it to the pieces, rather than the shade itself, as it was easier to access the edges with the tip of the glue container.

I applied a relatively generous amount, hoping that it would enable the glue to fill any small cracks or pockets that might be present along the break, before carefully fitting the piece onto the shade, pressing it on tightly for several minutes before releasing it (follow instructions for the glue you use).

Because the glue I was using would take several hours to properly harden, I left the shade overnight, before repeating the same process with the last piece the next day.

Because I had used a relatively generous amount of glue, there was some excess glue that had been squeezed out along the former cracks, which I carefully removed using a snap-off utility knife.

At the end of the day, the shade looked pretty decent, and to my pleasant surprise, the glue held firm even when I applied some gentle pressure to test whether it would hold or not.

Cleaning and polishing

As mentioned, there was a lot of old, hardened, dirt on various parts of the lamp, as well as decent amounts of rust on others. Although this part of the restoration proved to be the most boring and messy, it was also the most rewarding, as getting rid of all that dirty and rust revealed the shiny, clean surface underneath.

I started out cleaning the rust off the long, central bolt and the 2 nuts that attach to it. For this, I used a common rust remover spray and 2 metal brushes, one being a little harder than the other.

I knew this part was going to be messy, therefore, I covered my desk with several layers of old newspapers to avoid getting rusty grease all over my desk. I started off applying generous amounts of the rust remover, letting it sit for a couple of minutes, before starting to clean the rust off with the hardest metal brush, applying more rust remover along the way.

A small tip, do NOT wear white clothing while doing this, it will get messy. After working with the harder metal brush for a while, I changed to the softer one in order to get better access into the small creases between the threading of the bolt.

After completing the long bolt, I removed the rust from the nuts, as well as a couple of other minor parts, getting them all nice and shiny again.

Removing the rust from those part was less than half of the cleaning job, the majority was removing all the hardened dirt that had accumulated on the brass over the years. For this, I applied a metal cleaning solution, along with the softer metal brush, with good results.

It is important not to use a metal brush that is too hard, as it can damage the brass, creating visible scratches in the brass of the lamp. After rigorous cleaning and brushing for a couple of hours, I was really happy with the end result, as the old faded brass was now shining again, and I was ready to move on to putting it all back together.

Reassembly and final touches

It is often the case that dismantling something is a lot easier than putting it back together, which is definitely true for an emeralite. One of the hardest and most frustrating parts of the process was threading the wire back into its original position.

Through its way down from the socket, the wiring goes through a couple of very tight holes in the metal/brass construction. Although I did not have to replace the wiring in this lamp, and therefore did not remove it completely, I decided to reinforce it with some electrical tape in a couple of tight spots where the wire has some superficial damage from the surrounding metal, which made threading it back even harder.

After a little trouble and frustration, I was finally able to get it through, but my troubles did not end there. The next step was to attach the actual uppermost part of the base to the long metal bolt, but of course, I managed to put it on backward on my first try, however, it did not prove to be that big of a hiccup.

After my early setbacks, putting together the rest of the base was smooth sailing, however, I tried putting it back together with the broken metal piece mentioned earlier, but despite my best efforts, the fact that this metal piece was broken meant that the lamp would remain crooked.

Recall that the lower parts of the base were attached to the long threaded bolt with 2 nuts, one of which was right underneath the broken piece, while the other one is at the very bottom. So, what I decided to do was to remove the broken piece and the nut underneath, and only attach the lamp with the nut at the bottom.

Despite being a little tricky to keep everything together while fastening it, it turned out great, and although there was one piece missing, it was barely noticeable, and the lamp was standing straight.

Although I should have done it before putting everything else back together, I now had to put the new inner socket piece (with the pull-chain switch) into the original outer socket shell. Although it started out easy, attaching the wiring to the inner socket piece, getting it all to fit inside the original outer socket shell was a little tricky.

First of all, the cardboard insulation that came with the new socket was a little longer than the original one, and it was a little wider at the bottom. Shortening it was easy, as I simply removed the excess length with a pair of scissors, however, when it came to fit everything into the original socket shell, it proved to be a tight fit, but I got it in there.

Second, I now had to fit that already stuffed socket piece onto its attachment on the lamp. The way it works is that there is a ring on the lamp, which is very slightly wider than the base of the outer socket shell, and applying gentle force enables you to press it in, resulting in a tight fit that keeps it in place.

With the socket piece already stuffed due to the new cardboard, this proved to be a whole lot more difficult, but after some anger and frustration I was finally able to fit it in, after which  the only thing left to do was to put the shade back in place and pull the brand new pull-chain switch.

End result

Overall I’m very happy with the end result. Of course one can recognize that the shade has been broken and put back together, and those who know emeralite lamps will probably be able to see that the metal piece that was broken on the lower part of the base is missing, but for the price that I paid and the experience gained from this project, I am very satisfied.

Hopefully, I will be able to get my hand on an unbroken, original shade in the future, making it even more complete. I might also consider getting an emeralite being sold without the shade, using it for parts, so that I might be able to replace the missing part on the base.

I hope you enjoyed reading about the journey of getting this old emeralite back in better condition, and that it might inspire you to try something similar. I will upload a video of the whole process as soon as I’m finished editing.

I hope you found this article informative. If you have any comments, questions or other inquiries, please leave a comment in the comment section below.