Huge Sconce or former Gaslamp, how old?

From my belgian uncle's shed.

 

Do you know when household electric service became common in Belgium?

 

And I should have asked first - are they fitted for electric lamp bulbs now?

 

They were, with the wiring still covered in some sort of fabric and connected by some porcelain thingie(my uncle took the fittings out and used it as a candelabra for a while, then it ended up in the shed for some reason, I have scraped of candlewax and polished it a bit)...this is an area of expertise where my english is probably not sufficient...

In the netherlands it was around 1920, but gaslamps were back in use during WWII, do not know about belgium though.

 

Well, I would *think* that if it was originally made for electricity or candles, there would be no reason to fit it with what appear to be gas valve keys. Wouldn't someone buying a fixture for the "newfangled" electric light not want to appear old-fashioned?

Maybe I'm way off, but that's the way it strikes me.

 

A lot of gaslamps and candelabras/ chandeliers got wired for electricity later and I think that happened to this one too... it is just remarkable how many phases of life this thing has gone through... I wonder though, is it early 20th century or late nineteenth or even older?

 

That pendant at the lowest point, is it a valve or a switch? Does it turn (or look like it might have at some time)?

 

It looks 1880s or so to me.

 

The first public electrical power plant in The Netherlands was built in 1886 in Kinderdijk:

http://www.willemsmithistorie.nl/in...le-kinderdijk-125-jaar-19-04-1886-19-04-2011-

There were private electricity systems before that.
I am sure Belgium, which was more industrialized than The Netherlands, would have had electricity around the same time.
There was still electricity during WWII, one of the reasons why the Philips factories (light bulbs) in Endhoven could save many Jews by saying they were indispensable in their development and production departments.

 

I am fine with a circa 1880 date for this.