I have never owned a dog lamp in my life. This is a letter about the one I now switch on every evening
Five things a glass animal lamp gets right that no other lamp ever has, from a woman who spent sixty-seven years politely avoiding porcelain dogs.
Margaret Thornton, customer, Lexington, KY. 5 minute read
I am 67, I have shared my home with dogs for most of my life, and I have never once owned a dog lamp. I was pretty proud of that. Dog lamps, in my experience, are what people give you when they cannot think of anything else, and they end up at the back of a cabinet gathering dust and guilt. So when my daughter-in-law gave me a little glass dog for my birthday, I smiled, said thank you, and privately began planning where to hide it. That was in March. It has been switched on every evening since. So this is not a review. It is a woman who was wrong about a dog lamp, saying so.
The one I am writing about is called the Delight of Companionship, from Grace Savannah, a small family-run business, led by Grace, that makes handcrafted home goods and accessories. When Grace later asked whether they could share my letter, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
A little lamp in the shape of a shaggy dog, made of pieces of colored glass like a church window, that glows from the inside when you switch it on. On a woman who does not do novelty lamps. Read on.
Here is what a lifetime of being given novelty lamps taught me. They come in two sorts. The ones you like for a week, then stop seeing altogether. And the ones you never liked in the first place, which stay out only for as long as the person who gave them is in the room. Either way, they sit there doing nothing, and you dust around them.
Most lamps just sit there. This one comes on at dusk, and the whole room changes.
This is the first one I have owned that earns its place, and after seven months of switching it on, moving it around and watching visitors stop in front of it, I can tell you it comes down to five things.
The day it came, straight out of the box on the kitchen table. Even switched off, I had to admit it was pretty lovely.
It looks like your own dog
This is the part that undid me. It is not just a dog, it is a real little shaggy terrier, with the bangs falling over the eyes, the ears hanging down and the black button nose, and it is the spitting image of Pippin, who is asleep on my feet as I write this. I put it on the side table next to my armchair, and Pippin climbed onto my lap to stare at it. I took that as approval. They do it in all sorts of breeds and animals, so whoever you have at home, there is a fair chance there is one that looks like them.
Evenings in my armchair: Pippin on my lap, his glass double on the side table. He has decided it is no threat.
My husband walked in, said hello to it, and then realized our Bertie was asleep in the kitchen.
Jean B., Fort Wayne, INThe glow at the end of the day
Switch it on and every piece of glass lights up from the inside, amber, blue, green and red, and throws little patches of color across the table and up the wall. On a gray November evening at four-thirty, it is the nicest thing in the house. I switch it on when I draw the curtains, and it has become the moment the day winds down.
Up close, lit. Every little piece of glass is its own color.
It throws colors all over the ceiling at night. My granddaughter calls it the rainbow dog.
Gail F., Roanoke, VAIt goes anywhere, wire or no wire
It stands about 10 inches tall, so it fits on a windowsill, a mantel or a nightstand without taking over. And it runs either on batteries or plugged in, which means it goes where it looks best rather than where the outlet happens to be. Mine lives in the front window in the evenings, then comes upstairs at bedtime as a night light, which has made the trip to the bathroom at three in the morning a great deal more cheerful.
No wires, so it sits on the windowsill where I wanted it. Batteries last ages.
Susan H., Bend, OREverybody who sees it comments
I have lived on my street for twenty-two years, and I am now, apparently, the house with the glowing dog in the window. The mailman mentioned it. Two neighbors I had only ever nodded to stopped to ask where it was from. And every visitor who comes through the door stops in front of it before they have even taken their coat off. No lamp of mine has ever started a conversation before.
The lady across the street knocked to ask where I got it. We've gone for coffee twice since.
Brenda W., Wichita, KSThe easiest gift I have ever bought
There are all sorts of animals in the collection, dogs of every kind, cats, owls and plenty more besides, so you are not buying someone a lamp. You are buying them their own animal in glass. I have bought two since mine: an owl for my sister, who has collected owls since the seventies, and a cat for my friend from book club, who has never forgiven me for preferring dogs. Both were unwrapped with the same little gasp.
Mine, my sister's owl and the book club cat, before they went off to their new homes.
Bought one that looks like Mom's old collie, the year after we lost him. She keeps it lit in the window every night.
Kathleen D., Billings, MTThis lamp, against the lamps you have been given
Everybody has a lamp or two they did not really choose and never look at. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Just sits there and gathers dust
A plain lamp that only gives light
Stuck wherever the outlet is
Looks like a dog, not like your dog
Forgotten on the shelf within a month
Colored glass that glows every evening
A lamp and a keepsake in one
Battery or plug-in, so it goes anywhere
Shaped and colored like a real animal
Switched on every night, and talked about
About the price
The lamp is $54.95 right now, down from $275.00.
I will pass on what Grace told me, which is that they are going out of business, and once an animal sells out it will not be made again. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that for something I switch on every single evening, it is the best money I have spent on the house in years.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before ordering one for my sister. Over 300 of them, sitting at 4.2 stars. That sounded like real people rather than robots, so I kept reading. The same five things I have just walked you through came up again and again, in other women's words.
Four-thirty on a Tuesday in November. Curtains drawn, tea poured, dog on.
If you have a windowsill that could do with some color, a birthday coming up, or an animal of your own you would happily see in glass, this is the one I would put in your hands myself, while your animal is still there. Quit dithering and go take a look.
Margaret
DELIGHT OF COMPANIONSHIP | ANIMAL LAMP
- Colored glass that glows from the inside
- Shaped and colored like a real animal
- Runs on batteries or plugs in
- About 10 inches tall: windowsill, mantel or nightstand
- Lovely as a night light upstairs
- Many animals to choose from
- A gift that shows you know them
- Free US shipping
Going-out-of-business sale. Once an animal sells out, it won't be made again.