Welcome To RichardMillerLamps.com

Richard Miller Lamps ©

About

Richard Miller bought his first antique at the age of four. He slipped away from the watchful eye of his mother to journey to the end of the block to the local "Mom & Pop" antique shop (quite a journey for one so young). After searching her home and yard for the boy, Lois Miller spotted her child striding proudly home with his treasure; a blue English transfer ware cup and saucer carefully selected as a gift for her birthday. An antique dealer was born.

Throughout his youth and early teen years, Richard bought antiques (primarily the lamps he so admired in the local homes and small shops), and resold them to dealers and collectors in the nearby greater Cleveland area and to dealers he met during family visits to the Maryland and Delaware shores. His passion for Victorian lighting and his hands-on knowledge of his inventory grew with leaps and bounds. Ohio, with its wealth of great Victorian estates, proved to be fertile ground for developing a fine sense of aesthetics. By his late teens, he was attending shows nationally as a lighting dealer and collector that specialized in Victorian kerosene student lamps, hanging library lamps, leaded table lamps (including Tiffany Studios), GWTW's, miniatures, and opalescent patterned finger and stem lamps. He truly has seen it, and owned it, all.

All through college and graduate school, Victorian lighting and design remained a constant in Richard's life; he continued running his business while attending classes. Always one with a very high-energy personality, he works long hours to mesh his professional life as a dentist with his unending fascination with Victorian lighting. He has furnished and restored the Victorian lighting for homes featured in national and regional magazines, on HGTV, and in several collector's books. His book Student Lamps of the Victorian Era published in 1992, which features the lamps and catalogue information from his personal collection, is considered the bible for student lamp collectors. He assisted with the naming/identification of the lamps and contributed to the price guides for all three Thuro books Kerosene Lighting of North America , Oil Lamps II and Oil Lamps 3. He contributed to J. W. Courter's book Angle Lamps; D. Broughton's Bradley & Hubbard Illustrated Catalogue; and is personally thanked in M. Hulsebus' Victorian Miniature Lamps for helping build her collection.

This has always been his primary goal -- helping collectors build the finest collection possible within their means. Now almost 50 years after buying that first antique, Richard Miller is nationally recognized as a true Victorian lighting expert. He has authored Victorian lighting books; bought, sold and restored thousands of lamps; catalogued lighting collections for major auction houses; provided expert testimony in court disputes; and furnished countless appraisals for insurance companies. But his first and foremost goal has always been to build fine collections. He has built many of the top collections of Victorian lighting and non-Tiffany leaded lighting in this country. Many of his customers have been buying from him for over 30 years (including a few of those East Coast dealers).

Richard truly "Builds the best, and teaches the rest".

Richard and Cynthia Miller travel the country searching for the perfect lamp, not for their own collection, but for yours. If you are an advanced collector, a novice, or just someone searching for that perfect period piece for your home or business, don't hesitate to contact them. They would be happy to hear from you.
Contact them Now.