Pair of oil lamps; France, Napoleon III, 3/4 of the 19th century

Pair of oil lamps; France, Napoleon III, 3/4 of the 19th century
Glazed porcelain; gilded bronze
Measurements: 70 x 33 x 20 cm.

Pair of cobalt-blue glazed porcelain oil lamps with gilded bronze mounts, in the Louis XV style within the eclectic Napoleon III aesthetic. The body, with an balustrade-style profile and a wider base, features a neck and rim lined with bronze, two handles shaped like plant stems topped with leaves, and a pair of masks at the bases of the handles. The base, also made of bronze, consists of an openwork pedestal with a mixtilinear profile featuring scrollwork, plant motifs, and a central mask.

The deep cobalt blue that covers these vases—one of the most prized colors in European porcelain since the 18th century—became the preferred background for ceremonial pieces intended to be adorned with rich bronze mountings, due to the contrast it offered with gilding. Furthermore, the transformation of vases, tibors, and other decorative pieces into lamps was a widespread and common practice from the mid-19th century onward, when the gradual introduction of gas lighting and, above all, kerosene lamps in middle-class homes spurred the repurposing of existing objects—or the deliberate manufacture of new vases designed from the outset for this purpose—into table lamps. This same trend repeated itself decades later, with the arrival of electricity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when many of these pieces were once again adapted as table lamps, wall sconces, or even ceiling lamps, taking advantage of the decorative splendor of their bronze mounts to accommodate the new electrical technology.