L.127

A French lamp to use in hanging lamps from France, with a typical spherical shape. This lamp was offered on eBay France as a Longwy lamp.

The main attraction of the lamp is without doubt the beautifully painted, round ceramic vase. Especially the very beautiful blue of the background is captivating. The painted motifs are stylised flowers that are strongly reminiscent of Moorish arabesques. I used to have the impression that this vase could rather come from another famous ceramic manufactory, because it does not bear Longwy's signature. The Vieillard & Cie. manufactory in Bordeaux has created numerous ceramic objects in the style of Orientalism (source: Wikipedia France). The ceramic vase has the handwritten number D-550 on the inside. Such decoration numbers also occur on some other Vieillard vases. Only recently I discovered that this spherical vase also appears in a lamp by the American company Bradley & Hubbard; and there it is clearly labelled Longwy (H&B catalogue 1883/84, page 122). Therefore, the lamp can be dated to the beginning of the 1880s.

The remaining parts of the lamp are quite unspectacular: base, short column and font cover are all made of nickel-plated sheet brass without any ornamentation. The nickel coating on the font lid is completely worn away, while the base is still well nickel-plated. All metal parts were covered with a thick layer of dirt and tarnish, so I had to do quite a lot of work to get these parts reasonably clean.

I had to replace the supplied burner with another burner because the wick drive worked poorly.

A wide American gas lamp tulip shade with beautiful floral etching and light blue top rim suits the roundish lamp very well without competing with the polychrome painting.

Lamp Data

Added by me:
Burner, glass chimney, tulip shade and globe holder.

Cleaning and repairs:
Fixed the inner lead weight with a new screw combination (own nut was rusted and sawed off).

Lamp body:
Base and column of simple, stepped sheet brass, nickel-plated, round, Ø 124 mm. Spherical vase of Longwy pottery, polychrome painted with arabesque patterns (inside: D-550 handwritten), Ø 169 mm. At the column three stress cracks. Inside weight of cast lead.
Font of sheet iron, rather rusty, hidden in the vase. Font lid of stepped sheet brass; former nickel plating completely rubbed off.

Burner:
15’’’ Matador burner of Ehrich & Graetz, Berlin.
Wick knob ring marked: 15''' Matador.
Wick knob marked: Matador 15'''. Black glass inlay.
Original flame disc, marked: 15''' Matador.
Flat wick 74 mm.

Glass chimney:
15’’’ Matador chimney. Height 264 mm, Ø fitter 54 mm.
Marked: Roc Cristal V.S.L Marque Deposée - Fabriqué au Val St. Lambert Belgique - Matador 15'''.

Shade and shade holder:
American tulip shade for gas lamps, transparent glass, light blue on top, colourless on bottom, flat-etched flowers, fluted top rim. Lipped fitter.
Height 124 mm, Ø fitter 100 and top rim 210 mm.
100 mm globe holder for 14’’’/15’’’ burners.

Lamp dimensions:
Height up to collar 23.7 cm, total height with chimney 54.6 cm.
Total weight 2270 g.