At Any Old Vintage we're extremely well acquainted with vintage lighting, having run the award-winning Any Old Lights for nearly ten years.
Lighting used to be beautifully made, from serious metals, typically copper, brass and aluminium. Heavy castings, classic detailing. Mass-produced plastic twisted in the knife and the advent of cheap LED performed the coup de grace on that era.
If ship owners can install cheap plastic LED lighting aboard their vessels, then of course they will. These heavy metal nautical - and industrial, as the same applies in factories - lights will never be made again. Which leaves what remains of the old stock, and numbers are already dwindling.
Copper and brass vintage lights are already extremely hard to find. Aluminium is going the same way. Cargo ships only have a certain working life and once they're scrapped, they're gone.
Because of this, the prices will always keep going up. Supply and demand.
If you want to buy vintage nautical or industrial lighting, the time is definitely NOW!