I had a few lamps that I found like that. The bottom was brass but inside the bottom plate, it was hollow with some ceramic filler. Also looked like the rest was brass but the bar going up to the lights had some sort of plastic on it that looked like metal but once I took it off, the actual strength was just a slim steel bar going up. The worst part was that the cord was twisted in the bar and seemed to take for ever to get it to twist out.