Retro Lighting - The Banker's Lamp

A thrift store is the best place to pick up retro lamps and shades.  They are inexpensive, usually work well, and have real character.  It's also awesome to be able to spend $10 or $15 on a lamp.  However, sometimes you need a specific kind of lamp.  For example, we once had a green banker's desk lamp that worked well with a vintage desk at our house.  It looked much like this one:



The banker's lamp was cool because it fit in a confined space and it could shed light directly on documents.  Nothing was better for shedding light on a work surface.   While it didn't make our last move, it was also cool for creating a vintage look.

A Banker's Lamp - photo by Sándor Iskender (https://www.flickr.com/photos/iskender/126062252) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

You can just imagine this kind of lamp on a private eye's desk.  Here is a faux antique banker's lamp from Amazon and a compilation of Dashiell Hammett novels that I highly recommend.