This lamp is open at the bottom as others have mentioned and has a plastic-y ring around the base--I assume to prevent scratches. Whatever that plastic ring is made out of—or the glue that's used for attachment—it smells something awful. I removed it, cleaned up the bottom, and epoxied a round, plate-style glass candle holder to the bottom of the lamp base to help anchor it so it's not so top-heavy. (It would have most definitely tipped over at some point with simple on/off operation. Even after reading the other reviews about the top-heaviness issue, I didn't think it would be quite so bad–but it is.) This solution works and looks great, but for the price of the lamp, kind of ridiculous. I didn't want to bother with a return.