Neo-Greek Suspension, France Circa 1860, Attributed to Baccarat

-White opaline suspension lamp with neo-Greek inspired polychrome decoration. The bulging bowl, flared and cut into pointed festoons highlighted by a turquoise thread, narrows in its lower part to form a bell-shaped base decorated with turquoise leaves, resting in a gilt bronze cup finished with a spinning top finial. It is decorated with a central medallion featuring an antique-style female profile evoking a cameo, framed by an orange Greek key frieze, and surrounded by a wide band of black Greek keys on a turquoise background. It is suspended by three baluster-shaped double rods from a gilt bronze ceiling rose decorated with foliage.

This suspension lamp is a fine example of the virtuosity of mid-19th century glass manufacturing (such as Baccarat, Saint-Louis, or other Parisian workshops specializing in opaline). The use of light—the opaline becoming diaphanous and incandescent when lit from the inside—magnificently enhances the decoration. The work bears witness to a colorful and theatrical "reinvented" antiquity, typical of the taste of bourgeois and aristocratic interiors during the Napoleonic period.

BIOGRAPHIE

The famous Baccarat crystal works, whose origins date back to the 18th century, won its first medal at the Exhibition of French Industrial Products in 1823, where it was praised for "the brilliance and finesse of the crystal," becoming the premier crystal works in France. Baccarat was undoubtedly the only French industry consistently and masterfully represented at the various exhibitions in which it participated, thereby winning honors and prestigious awards. A recurring praise, "the perfection of the material and the cut," appears in all the Universal Exhibition reports between 1855 and 1867, where the Baccarat crystal works dominated due to the quality of its crystal, deemed superior to that of Bohemia and England. In order to retain its wealthy clientele, which naturally included members of the Royal Family, Baccarat had to continually discover and launch new fashions, new decorations, as well as new materials.