Chicago Small Wall Lantern - 1 Light - Textured Black Elstead

The Chicago Small is a wall lantern in cast aluminium with a textured black finish and a clear blown-glass lantern body flecked with fine air bubbles (seeded glass). The lantern hangs beneath a curved, decorative arm that springs from a narrow wall plate, and a pointed finial closes it at the bottom. Elstead files the Chicago series among its classic lanterns in a turn-of-the-century style.

Where to mount it

The lantern is rated IP44 and the manufacturer lists it for exterior use. IP44 means protection against water splashing from any direction, so it can hang on a facade beside the front door, on a terrace wall or at the entrance of a restaurant or hotel. It is 47 cm tall and 23.5 cm wide, and projects 28 cm from the wall — figures worth checking against the space between the door and its frame, a downpipe or a window.

Where the entrance has no flat stretch of wall, Elstead offers a separately sold corner bracket, C-BKT2-BLACK, which lets the lantern hang on the corner of the building. The lantern itself weighs 2.88 kg.

What light it gives

Inside is a single E27 lampholder for a bulb of up to 60 W. No bulb is included. The glass is clear, so the bulb stays on show — the manufacturer recommends a separately sold E27 LED lamp in Edison style with a clear glass envelope. That lamp has a colour temperature of 3000 K, a warm white.

The fitting works with dimmable lamps: with a dimmable bulb and a suitable dimmer the brightness at the entrance can be turned down. It is protection class I, which means it has to be connected with a protective earth conductor.

Construction

The cast aluminium is coated in a matt black with a rough texture, visible in the close-up photographs along the rim of the canopy and on the scrolls of the arm. The canopy has a wavy, fluted edge, and the glass is shaped like a tulip. The ornate bracket, the fluted canopy and the finial at the base are details of a classic street lantern, scaled down to a fitting for the wall of a house.