Empire Ormolu Five-Light Bouillotte Lamp with Original Green Tôle Shade

A fine Empire bouillotte lamp in gilt bronze, notable for the exceptional quality of its gilding. The rich, even gold surface plays burnished against matte finishes to highlight the crisp chasing throughout.

The circular foot is decorated with a laurel and wave frieze. The column rises from acanthus leaves, and its lower section is chased with palmettes, anthemion and scrolls above a lotus collar. A patinated tapering shaft leads to a palmette capital and gadrooned drip-pan. A fluted urn supports five cornucopia-form arms, each topped by an eagle’s head and ending in a leaf-chased bobèche.

The original green-painted tôle shade with gilt border adjusts on a steel rod with an arrow-form locking key and pine-cone finial. Electrified with twisted silk cord, in working order.

Literature:
For comparable gilt-bronze lighting and decorative bronzes of the period, see:
H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen: Die Bronzearbeiten des Spätbarock und Klassizismus, Munich, 1986, vol. I.
J.-P. Samoyault, Pendules et bronzes d’ameublement entrés sous le Premier Empire, Musée national du château de Fontainebleau, Paris, 1989.
M.-F. Dupuy-Baylet, L’heure, le feu, la lumière : Les bronzes du Mobilier national 1800–1870, Dijon, 2010.
P. Kjellberg, Objets montés du Moyen Âge à nos jours, Paris, 2000.