****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Of the pair of these House of Troy Newport Collection Table Lamps I first received, one had to be sent back immediately due to a serious defect. Specifically, the factory did not correctly assemble the column to the base, so the lamp very visibly tilted to one side, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Hard to believe the factory missed this defect, as it was obvious as soon as I opened the box.On both lamps, another problem is the finial, in my opinion. For some reason, I expected it to be made of brass. Instead, it appears to be a brass-plated pot metal casting with a crude thread that is hard to get started without cross-threading. The finial is more or less representative of the workmanship of the lamp as a whole, which is acceptable but slightly "off." If the lamps are hand-finished with the variations this implies, fine, but the hands need to be a bit more highly skilled. My conclusion is that these lamps do not look as refined in reality as in the picture. No doubt I would consider them more favorably if they cost less.Notwithstanding the preceding, the lamp that was not defective looks impressive. The overall design is very good. The double lamp sockets with pull chains are an excellent feature. The lamp gives a positive sense of weight, solidity, and strength. The shade is quite nice, although more tan than off-white.The bottom line is that the lamps are good enough (when not defective) that I asked Amazon.com to replace the defective lamp, rather than my returning both of them. Hopefully my luck will be better next time and the replacement lamp will not be defective.Follow-up. The replacement lamp was also defective, as it came out of the box with a sharp dent in the side of the base. These lamps are so well packed that the dent had to be there before the lamp left the factory, in my estimation. I also had this lamp exchanged. The next replacement was free of defects. So finally I have a matching pair of lamps in the living room. They look good enough to be worth waiting for.Follow-up 2017. I still have these lamps, have had zero problems with them since the initial round of defects, and am happy with them.
