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Slip shades - absolutely gorgeous, highly sought-after, and often the bane of collectors across the globe. How, you may wonder, does such a beautiful thing cause so much frustration? Well, it all comes down to how slip shades are designed! The majority of the lights and shades we sell are compatible with one another, so long as you've got the right size - most glass shades with a 4" fitter will fit into any 4" fixture, most three-chain shades work with any three-chain fixture, et cetera. Makes it easy to find replacement parts, or even customize your whole lighting set up. The lighting department becomes your oyster!
Slip shades, however, are not so simple. Wildly popular during the eras of Art Nouveau and Art Deco in particular, they're a great example of the incredible artistic and technological innovations of the time. Unfortunately, though, they are also a great example of proprietary design. Every slip shade was made to fit one line of chandelier and/or sconces, and no others. Even within a single line, because the fixtures were often molded directly to the shade, sometimes the right shade still won't quite fit into the setting. Sometimes you can get similar-enough shades to fit okay, but it often stresses the glass, leading to cracks or even broken shades. Plus, it makes the whole fixture just look a little off. So if you're missing a shade, it really needs to be replaced with the exact same model, and that can make it pretty tricky to find replacements!
So why are they so popular now, if they're so hard to fix? Well, look at 'em!
We weren't exaggerating, slip shade sconces and chandeliers really are beautiful. And while it sucks that they're so hard to find replacement shades for, there is still some good news to be had: Here at Hippo, we have a whole bunch of slip shades!
Some of our slip shades are listed on our website, and you can find those right here, but we have even more in our in-store stock, and get new things in all the time, too. If you have a sconce or chandelier missing a slip shade, shoot us an email at hippohardware@gmail.com with some photos, and we'll see if we have a match! Finding the right slip shade can be pretty challenging, for sure - but nothing beats the satisfaction of finally getting to fix up that sconce or chandelier, and being able to see it in all its glory.
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