Sculptural Lamps Made of Other Materials
After all these cast zinc, porcelain and ceramic lamps, I don't want to close the chapter without introducing a few more sculptural lamps made of other materials.
As mentioned above, other materials are relatively rare in the manufacture of sculptural lamps. Nevertheless, you will find attractive lamps that do not have to shy away from comparison to the examples shown above. First and foremost, these are probably lamps made of cast brass or cast iron. I do not know to what extent cast bronze still played a role in the late 19th century, although this alloy was the preferred choice in earlier centuries, especially for very prestigious objects. Even today, particularly fine castings are called bronze following an old tradition, although they are only made of brass.
Sculptural lamps made of other materials
From left: L.027 – L.117 – L.125 – L.340 / L.174 – L.300 – L.254 – L.306
The first lamp L.027 in the photo is a typical French lamp with a three-dimensional heron in the middle of a plant ornament, and it is completely made of cast brass. Such lamps with a naturalistically reproduced heron are a specialty from France. They clearly belong to the Art Nouveau period.
The lamp L.117 is a very unusual lamp from Great Britain. Here, 4 winged, female mythical creatures ("harpies" in Greek mythology) together carry the large crystal glass font. The completely silver-plated lamp body bears the hallmarks of the famous silverware manufacturer Elkington & Co. and is dated March 1862. The metal used is probably brass, which was later silver-plated galvanically.
The lamp L.125 is one of the very unusual lamps in my collection. A real animal horn rises from a fully 3-dimensional, silver-plated ram's head and carries the glass font. A bird's nest, a snake and two birds made of silver-plated metal are attached to the horn, where the birds defend their egg in the nest against the snake. This lamp is likely to have been commissioned by a hunter or forester. Presumably it is unique. The glass tulip is from St. Louis. Here too, brass castings were silver-plated afterwards.
The small lamp L.340 next to it is actually a rather old candlestick in the form of a hippocampus with a fish tail shaped as a handle. The hippocampus is a mythological creature of the sea, whose body shows a horse at the front, but has a longer fish tail at the back. Fore limbs are shaped like real fish fins. The beautiful patina suggests that the hippocampus may even be made of bronze.
The first lamp on the photo on the right, L.174, is the real surprise. The glossy black female figure and the base of the lamp are not made of painted metal. They consist of the black synthetic resin Ebonite, which was invented in 1851 by Charles Goodyear in USA. This particularly noble, resistant synthetic resin was used very often (and probably even today) in the manufacture of clarinet and pipe mouthpieces. This lamp is the only resin lamp in my collection.
The large, extraordinary lamp L.300, on the other hand, consists of several cast iron parts that are joined together to form a “sailor lamp”. Here two very realistically reproduced sailors stand in a stylized boat. The lamp comes from the manufactory C.H. Stobwasser in Berlin. The beautiful glass tulip is again from Great Britain.
The lamp L.254 with a stylized dragon as a column used to be an old cast iron candlestick that was converted into a kerosene/paraffin lamp at some point. The painted glass font is from Cristallerie de Pantin near Paris.
The very last sculptural lamp in this chapter, L.306, is my only pewter lamp. This lamp is also an artist lamp from France, designed and signed by Charles Théodore Perron (1862-1934). Here a naked woman (a water fairy or a mermaid?) sits on a large, stylized fish head and hugs a large sea snail. The glass tulip is from Cristallerie de Clichy near Paris.