J and I got this vintage/antique floor lamp a while ago--I don't remember how long ago, but it was long enough ago that it was still warm out. I found it at the local Salvation Army thriftstore, and it was only $5 because it was missing a socket (the one that's now shiny in the picture). J has done some electrical work in theater, and we've rewired lamps and ceiling lights before without blowing anything up or starting fires, so with a five dollar lamp kit from the hardware store, we got a new, cheap, awesome antique lamp.
The metal is cast iron, and I'm not sure whether the rest of the base is glass or stone, but which ever, the whole thing is quite heavy. The only other problem with this lamp was that it didn't come with a shade. It turns on by pull cords hanging from the sockets, which I thought was a cool vintage detail, so we didn't change that when we rewired (there are lots of different switch types available if you rewire yourself). I originally wanted a glass lamp shade, or a mod drum shade, but couldn't find anything in our price range that didn't look way out of sync with the base.
So I started playing around with the idea of making my own shade, based on these tutorials, but couldn't figure out how to make them open-bottomed to leave access to the switch pulls.