Pillar Lamps from France
The French not only love food, they also celebrate it with multi-course menus that take a long time to prepare and to enjoy. Especially the haute-bourgeoisie in Paris and other culturally and economically successful cities used to host opulent banquet dinners with several friends and acquaintances. The best illumination for such large tables were the tall pillar lamps, whose slender columns did not obscure the faces of the guests seated opposite, and whose lights, directed more to the side and upwards, provided general illumination. It is therefore not surprising that France (along with Great Britain) produced a large number of pillar lamps.
I must confess, pillar lamps attracted me - especially at the beginning of my collecting - with their height and their high quality decoration with marble or alabaster columns. Thus, my collection comprises a total of 20 French pillar lamps made of different column materials (marble, onyx marble, serpentine, alabaster, glass, porcelain, cast zinc, brass), which I have compiled in the next three collective photos.
French pillar lamps with marble columns
From left: L.214 – L.062 – L.236 / L.267 – L.010 – L.281
I got L.214 with the dark green marble column and plinth plate without a font and supplemented it with a glass font with glass applications that matches the colour well. The elongated tulip shade made of uranium glass is captivating because of the ornamental glass inlays.
The column and base plate of L.062 are made of violet-veined marble. The glass font and the ball shade beautifully etched with butterflies and flower branches are by Baccarat.
L.236 has a beautifully patterned red marble column and a painted glass font made of pink coloured glass. The French tulip shade complements the lamp very well in terms of colour.
Strictly speaking, L.267 is not a column lamp, because the column part made of green, yellow-veined marble is not cylindrical, but baluster-shaped. I have listed it here because its construction is very comparable to the two other lamps in the photo. Here, too, the glass font and the tulip shade that I added are beautifully painted.
The relatively small L.010 pillar lamp has a short column and a base plate made of red-orange banded marble. The painted glass font and the newly manufactured tulip shade from Poland harmonise quite well with the marble elements. The zinc castings are nickel-plated.
The last lamp in the above photo, L.281, again has a marble column and a base plate of green, yellow-veined marble and a painted green glass font. The bulbous glass tulip is by Baccarat. Here the zinc cast contours are patinated in a dark grey.
French pillar lamps with onyx marble, serpentine and alabaster columns
From left: L.033 – L.167 – L.098 – L.115 / L.296 – L.264 – L.087
The light cream-coloured column of the lamp L.033 is made of onyx marble. The crystal font is from Baccarat. The large tulip shade embossed with rococo ornaments is a new production from the old casting moulds of the Viennese glass manufactory S. Reich. The lamp is fitted with a 20’’’ Bürger burner by Carl Holy.
The lamp L.167 has a column of green, reddish banded onyx marble. The glass font is plain, without painting, but has a slightly lustrated surface. Again, the tulip shade is a new production from Poland.
In contrast to the previous lamp, the lamp L.098 flaunts an imposing appearance due to elaborate decoration. The lamp consists of an unfortunately shortened, faceted cut column made of green onyx marble and two square plates made of the same material. The base is splendidly designed with ornamental parts made of cast brass. I was able to compensate for the shortened column with other brass parts to some extent. The font is from Baccarat. I completed the lamp with a 22’’’ Kaiser burner by Eckel & Glinicke and a large blue tulip shade from probably Polish production.
L.115 is fitted with a column and a round, profiled cut base plate each made of green onyx marble. This elegant, medium-sized pillar lamp captivates with its beautiful crystal font with a beautiful pattern and the interestingly shaped, spherical tulip shade by Baccarat.
The black, octagonal faceted column and the square base of the lamp L.296 are made of black serpentine. I have succeeded in finding a glass font and a glass tulip with identical etched decoration from different sources and combining them in this lamp.
L.264 with the column and base plate made of reddish-grey alabaster has a typical French glass font and a St. Louis tulip shade. The zinc mountings are nickel-plated. Interestingly, the parts of the alabaster surface covered by zinc parts are coloured green. Presumably the alabaster parts were originally coloured with a green paint which has faded over time under the UV rays of daylight.
L.087 is a stately pillar lamp with an intricately cut crystal font by Baccarat. The rectangular cut column and the base plate are made of light grey, slightly more translucent alabaster. The zinc mounts are cast in a beautiful Art Nouveau style and bronzed in gold. The etched tulip shade and the two-tiered globe holder came from Great Britain.
Further pillar lamps with glass, porcelain and metall columns
from left: L.006 – L.035 – L.363 / L.103 – L.034 - L.091 – L.297
One of my first lamps is L.006, which is also one of the most expensive. This lamp captivates with its beautiful foot/column combination of Clichy glass and formerly gilded brass mounts with their rich, baroque ornamentation. The crystal font is beautifully hand cut. I was able to complement the lamp with a rare French tulip shade from the Art Nouveau period.
A similarly imposing, rare lamp is L.035 with its painted porcelain column and tulip shade that matches the colour very well. The crystal font is again by Baccarat. The 20’’’ Agni burner by Wild & Wessel is fitted with a marked Agni chimney.
The column/base combination of the lamp L.363 was probably the lamp body of a former Sinumbra lamp. I was able to create an elegant kerosene/paraffin lamp from it by contributing all the necessary parts. The font is from Baccarat. All parts of the base and the column are made of cast zinc, carefully lacquered and bronzed by me in imitation of their then gilded predecessors. A slender St. Louis tulip shade further enhances the elegance of the lamp.
The last four lamps are all made of brass. They each have unspectacular columns of sheet brass, obliquely fluted and vertically ribbed respectively. L.103 has a font of Baccarat crystal glass, a 20’’’ Bürger burner by Carl Holy and a large tulip shade of new Polish production. L.034 has a simple brass column, but a beautiful cut ruby red crystal font and a matching St. Louis tulip shade.
L.091 has an obliquely ribbed crystal font by Baccarat, which harmonises well with the pattern of the rest of the lamp. The tulip shade is probably a later production from Karlskrona in Sweden.
The last lamp in the photo, L.297, is again a high-quality lamp made of silver-plated brass. The silver layer is somewhat rubbed off, especially on the ribbed column. The elaborately cut crystal font is - who would be surprised? - again by Baccarat. The tulip shade in eye-catching colour and painting, however, came from Great Britain.