No, and this is the main reason to choose stone for a wall. The LED sits behind the alabaster cylinder, so light travels through the stone and leaves it already diffused. There is no source visible from any angle in the room — nothing to look into, only something to look at.

It matters far more on a wall than on a ceiling. A sconce mounted at 64″ is at the height your eyes are already scanning, and a visible bulb there is the reason so many sconces get installed, found uncomfortable, and quietly switched off for good.

Yes — the cylinder is cut from natural stone, not resin or moulded glass. Three things tell you: it is cool to the touch and heavy for its size; the veining sits inside the thickness of the stone and shifts as you walk past rather than staying flat; and at the cut ends the pattern carries straight through the edge instead of stopping at a seam. The frame is copper rather than plated steel, finished in brass, black or nickel.

No — the LED is integrated into the fixture rather than screwed into a socket. That is what allows the source to disappear completely inside the stone, and it means there is nothing to buy and nothing to replace.

The trade-off is real and worth knowing before you order: the colour temperature is fixed at manufacture and cannot be changed the way a bulb can, and you cannot make it brighter later. If being able to swap the light matters to you, a socketed fixture is the better choice.

Think of it as a warm ambient layer, not a room light. Stone absorbs a good deal of what passes through it — that absorption is exactly what produces the soft internal glow — and the cylinder here is slim, so a single sconce lights its own patch of wall beautifully rather than filling a room.

In a hallway, a run of them at 8–10 ft spacing is genuinely enough to move through a house by. Beside a bed, a pair gives comfortable light to talk and unwind by, though a dedicated reading light is better for a book. At a mirror, a pair is exactly right — the even bilateral wash is what a face needs.

Yes, integrated LED fixtures rely on a driver to operate, so they require a dimmer specifically designed for LED loads. (Please contact us if you need a dimmable version.)

Set the centre of the fixture 60–66″ (152–168 cm) above the finished floor for general use. Beside a vanity mirror, 64–66″ puts the glow at face height. Beside a bed, drop to 58–60″, which places the bottom of the stone roughly 20–24″ above a typical mattress.

At 23.6″ tall this is a long sconce, so check what sits above and below it — at a 66″ centre the top reaches about 78″, just under a standard door head. Decide the height before the junction box is roughed in; it is the one thing that is expensive to change afterwards.

At a mirror, always a pair, spaced 36–40″ (90–100 cm) apart and centred on the glass — light arriving from both sides is what removes shadow from a face, and a single sconce lights half of one. Beside a bed, a pair unless only one side is used. In a hallway, one every 8–10 ft, or one per door if the doors are evenly spaced. A single works in an alcove, a stairwell, or above a console.

Not identically, because each cylinder is cut from a different block of stone. But tell us you are buying a pair and we will match them from the same batch so the tone and density of veining sit close together. They will read as a matched pair from across the room; up close each one is still its own piece of stone. If an exact match matters more to you than natural stone does, say so before ordering and we will talk it through.

No — and there are two separate reasons rather than one. The fixture is rated for indoor, dry locations only and has no protection against water. And alabaster is a porous stone that does not want sustained humidity, so even a well-ventilated bathroom is unkind to it over time.

It belongs in dry rooms: hallways, bedrooms, living rooms, stairwells, or beside a mirror in a dressing room rather than a wet one.

Dust only — never use water on the stone. Alabaster is a gypsum mineral and is slowly soluble in water, so a damp cloth used regularly will dull the surface and eventually etch it. Use a soft dry cloth or a dry brush on the cylinder, and keep solvents, glass sprays and all-purpose cleaners well away from it.

This matters more on a wall than on a ceiling, simply because a sconce is within reach and gets wiped without anyone thinking about it. The copper brackets will take a barely damp cloth as long as you keep it off the stone.

The stone cylinder is wrapped separately and foam-seated, with the brackets and backplate packed apart from it. If something arrives damaged, send photographs within 24 hours of delivery and the affected part is replaced. A replacement cylinder will have its own veining, as every piece of natural stone does — if you are replacing one of a pair, tell us and we will match it to the one you still have.