You cannot beat this lamp, for the price. I did believe that it was a smooth glass surface, from looking at the photos on the website. In fact, it's a frosted glass. We are going to keep it, and use it somewhere. The frosted glass, and off-white shade (we want white) rule it out for the spot we had hoped to use it. But, the brass accents, shape, proportions, weight all make it appear to be far more expensive than it is.