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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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A very fine pair of Empire white marble, gilt and patinated bronze Carcel lamps attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire, each with a gadrooned and acanthus-wrapped circular urn-shaped gilt socket above a fluted columnar patinated bronze shaft upon an inverted knopped acanthus-wrapped foot on a square base on a stepped square white marble pedestal ornamented with gilded swags centred by a rosette above a gilded border, adapted for electricity, with pleated cream silk shades Paris, date circa 1810 Height of marble pedestal 23.5 cm, height of bronze column 64.5 cm, total height including shade 128 cm. each. Literature: Jonathan Bourne and Vanessa Brett, “Lighting in the Domestic Interior, Renaissance to Art Nouveau”, p. 139, pl. 466, illustrating a pair of very similar gilt and patinated bronze lamps bearing a label inscribed ‘Carcel, inventeur Breveté….’. These marvellous lamps were originally oil lamps and would have contained a clockwork mechanism to pump oil to the burner. They are known either as column oil lamps or more often as Carcel lamps, named after the inventor Bernard-Guillaume Carcel, who was established at rue de l’arbre Paris from 1800-12. In 1800 Carcel invented a mechanism to raise the oil to the wick, which meant that the oil reservoir no longer needed to be higher than the wick. Many similar models, including the present pair, have subsequently been adapted for electricity to accord with modern living styles. The pre-eminent fondeur-ciseleur bronzier, Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843) made a number of candelabra and supports of similar design. For example the columnar shaft, base and socket corresponds closely to a design of 1810 for a pair of mirror supports for a table à coiffer for Princess Marie-Louise, (illustrated in Juliette Niclausse, “Thomire Fondeur-Ciseleur, Sa Vie –Son Oeuvre”, 1947, pl. 26). The design also relates to a set of candelabra of 1811 made by Thomire for Emperor Napoleon’s Grand Cabinet at the Grand Trianon, Versailles, (illustrated Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, “Vergoldete Bronzen”, 1986, p. 663). |