How to clean a Moroccan brass lamp

To clean a Moroccan brass lamp, switch it off, let it cool, take the bulbs out, and brush the dust out of the piercing with a soft, dry paintbrush. That is most of it. Tarnish is optional: you can polish it off once a year, or let the lamp darken and never polish it at all.

This article is about lamps. For brass in general — trays, bowls, door furniture — see our complete brass care guide.

Before you start

1. Switch the lamp off at the wall, not just at the chain.
2. Let it cool for fifteen minutes if it has older bulbs.
3. Remove the bulbs. If the lamp comes apart (some have a removable base or top), take it apart over a towel.

Monthly: dust

Dust is what makes a pierced lamp look tired — it clogs the openings and dims the pattern long before tarnish does.

• Work a soft, dry paintbrush (2–3 cm wide) through the piercing from the top down.
• For deep chambers, a hairdryer on the cold setting or a can of compressed air blows out what the brush cannot reach.
• Finish with a dry microfibre cloth on the flat surfaces.

No water. Moisture near the lamp holders is the one real hazard in cleaning a lamp.

First, is it lacquered?

This decides everything that follows.

• Lacquered: the shine is bright and even and has not changed in years. A polishing cloth rubbed on it stays clean. Do not polish it — you will cut through the lacquer and leave patches. Wipe with a barely damp cloth, dry immediately, and that is all.
• Unlacquered (bare): it has darkened unevenly, darker in the recesses, brighter where hands touch it. A polishing cloth comes away black. This is how we make ours, and it can be polished as often as you like.

Once a year, or never: polish

If you want bare brass bright again:

1. Put a small amount of mild brass polish on a soft cloth — not on the lamp.
2. Work along the surfaces, not in circles, a panel at a time.
3. Keep polish out of the openings as far as you can: polish left in the piercing dries pale and keeps working.
4. Buff off every trace with a clean cloth, then use a dry brush to lift any residue from the holes.
5. If you want the brightness to last, a very thin coat of microcrystalline wax, buffed off, holds it for around six months.

Home remedies — lemon and salt, or vinegar with salt and flour — work on bare brass too, but they are wet and acidic. On a lamp full of holes and wiring, a commercial polish on a cloth is much easier to control.

What damages a brass lamp

• Abrasive pads, wire wool, scouring powder. They scratch the surface permanently. This is the only mistake that cannot be undone.
• Soaking or rinsing a wired lamp.
• Polish or acid left in the piercing.
• Ammonia-based glass cleaners, which can stain brass.

Or let it age

A bare brass lamp that is never polished goes from bright yellow to a warm, deep brown over a year or so, and then stays there. Many people prefer it — the light through a darker shade is warmer still. What to expect month by month is in living with a patina.

Back to the complete guide to Moroccan brass lamps.