These are gorgeous!  I got them in the vintage bronze color, and they match perfectly with some victorian style floor lamps I have in the room.  They are VERY heavy-- great quality!  The ball on the end screws on and off for easy application of curtain.  My windows are rather close together-- like only about 4.25 inches in between-- so I just left off the ball on the inside end of each rod because the ball was too big to use in between windows.  So it looks like I have one giant continuous rod across my two windows.  They are really beautiful rods!  They add a lot of character!