L.296

A high quality, heavy pillar lamp from France, found at an antique dealer in southern Germany. The lamp has a faceted cut column and a thick, square base of black serpentine. The black colour contrasts beautifully with the shiny golden mountings of the cast brass column base and capital. Whether the metal parts were originally gilded, as there are hardly any tarnished areas, cannot be answered clearly. The lamp had a colourless, cut crystal font by Baccarat. It is obvious that the lamp belonged to a distinguished household.

When I took the font off for cleaning, I saw that the metal undermount was completely off-centre (by 6-7 mm from the centre!).

In the meantime, I had a very charming combination of a glass font and a large tulip shade that exactly matched in their etched decorations. I had acquired them from completely different sellers. Now the plan matured in me to remove the very poorly centred Baccarat font and fit the lamp with this very well matching combination.

To do this, I sawed off the upper part of the brass undermount and, in very long, painstaking work, scraped off the putty from the inside. I then replaced the now missing upper part of the undermount with a matching brass ring and cemented this new piece to the replacement font.

Finally, I completed the lamp with a Bürger burner by Carl Holy (with original flame disc and original wick) and with a matching chimney.

Lamp Data

Added by me:
Glass font, burner, glass chimney, tulip shade and globe holder.

Cleaning and repairs:
Metal undermount removed from the actual font, completed with a brass ring and cemented to the replacement font.

Lamp body:
Base of black serpentine, square, on brass frame, 13.5 x 13.5 cm.
Column base and capital of cast brass. Column of black, octagonally faceted serpentine, tapering to the top.
Font of colourless, frosted glass, cameo-etched floral ornamentation matching the tulip, Ø 150 mm.

Burner:
20’’’ Bürger burner of Carl Holy, Berlin.
Wick knob marked: Logo of Carl Holy. Black glass inlay.
Original flame disc of Carl Holy, marked: 20''' Bürgerbrenner II + Logo Carl Holy.
Flat wick 87 mm.

Glass chimney:
20’’’ Matador chimney with slim bulge. Height 267 mm, Ø fitter 63 mm.
Marked: Matador-Cylinder 20''' in decorative circle frame.

Shade and shade holder:
Tulip shade, colourless glass, frosted, optically diagonally ribbed, cameo-etched floral motifs matching the font, upper rim fluted and frilled.
Height 171 mm, Ø fitter 102 and top rim 205 mm.
100 mm globe holder for 20’’’ burners.

Lamp dimensions:
Height up to collar 46.2 cm, total height with chimney 77.1 cm.
Total weight 4570 g.