In the Rubbermaid shed at the end of Jonathan Polleys’ driveway at 46 Pinehurst Road in Edgartown, there are three repaired lamps waiting for pickup. One is a converted lantern, another is a ceramic lamp glazed in a distinct 1960s aqua, and the third is a tarnished brass floor lamp with claw and ball feet that looks like it graced someone’s parlor back when people still called living rooms parlors.
“You can buy a new lamp for $15, $20,” Mr. Polleys said. “Just about all my repairs are on the lamps that have sentimental value. I also get a lot of lamps that people pick up at estate sales.”
Mr. Polleys said some of his more memorable repairs include wiring kerosene lamps from the early 1900s, “which killed me to convert because of the antiquity value.” Additionally, he’s rewired Oak Bluffs Campground lamps, nautical lamps, a lamp from his childhood living room, and most recently, some old railroad lamps. “Originally they were oil-filled, and then rewired about 40 years ago,” he said. “I also converted a hookah pipe into a lamp. I can’t tell you who it was for,” he said, grinning.
Mr. Polleys, the general manager at Edgartown Hardware, started his lamp doctoring doing a favor for a customer. “When I first worked at the hardware store, 20-some years ago, a woman with an antique store in town came in with a lamp in her hands, and said it blew out,” he recalled. “I told her it looked like it was just a question of replacing the socket, so I popped off the old one and put in a new one and she looked at me dumbfounded and said, ‘Wow, that’s great! Can you do a few more?’ She and her business partner go to England every spring and come back with antique lamps, and I convert them from European to American [current].”
The workshed behind Mr. Polleys’ house brims with an assortment of lamps that look to be from every decade since electricity replaced kerosene. A 12-socket chandelier of undetermined age sits prominently on his crowded workbench, where various tools, sockets, and spools of electrical cord fill every available inch of space. Mr. Polleys said he taught himself the trade with the help of electrical suppliers.
“I order electrical and plumbing supplies for the store, and it helps to have the catalogs,” he said. “I’d call people up and ask about a particular socket, and they were always helpful.” Mr. Polleys occasionally ventures into other antique electrical repairs. “I’ve been known to put new plugs on an old vacuum cleaner,” he said. “I’m working on finding a replacement motor for a friend’s fan from the 1940s.”
Unique business model
Mr. Polleys has never advertised his business because he’s never had to. “I just rely on word of mouth,” he said. Turnaround time can vary, depending on his work and hunting schedule.
“I’m happy to help people out, but they have to understand that it’s not my main vocation,” he said. “If someone has something really urgent and I have the time, I’ll do it. But people need to know it could be two days or it could be two weeks.”
Mr. Polleys said his services are most in demand in the spring, when seasonal residents are opening up their houses, and estate sales begin in earnest. “That’s also the busiest time at the store; all the tradesmen are getting back into high gear, so the store has to come first,” he said.
Customers don’t need to contact Mr. Polleys directly to get their lamps fixed. All they need do is drop the lamp in the shed at the end of his driveway marked “LAMP SHED” and leave their contact information attached. Mr. Polleys notifies customers when their lamp is fixed and awaiting pickup in the shed. He works completely on the honor system. Customers leave their check in a pouch pinned to the shed wall.
“In 22 years, only three or four people haven’t paid,” Mr. Polleys said. “If people are going to sell their soul for a lamp, I’m OK with that.”