Object Description
A Pair of French Empire
Appliques à Quinquet
The body constructed from forest green tôle peinte with gilt metal, modelled as classical herms with busts of Diana, the tapering backplates hand-decorated and issuing a single branch oil lamp and accompanying shade of conforming style.
French, circa 1815
Related to the Argand Lamp, the “Quinquet” lamp, after Antoine-Arnoult Quinquet, a pharmacist in Paris, introduced a much-improved version with more brightness. Its success made it the most popular lamp of the early 19th century, until it was replaced by Kerosene lamps around 1850.
This pair of tôle peinte appliques is closely related to a design from the atelier of Deharme, now in the Bibliothèque Marmottan. Established in 1792, the Parisian “Manufacture de Vernis sur Métaux” Deharme specialized predominantly in varnished or gilt-japanned tôle pieces, receiving important commissions from Napoleon, the Empress Joséphine, as well the King of Naples.