Object Description
A pair of silvered-bronze and cut-glass urn lamp bases in the French Empire style
American, 20th Century
Height 55cm, width 22cm, depth 18cm
These fine lamp-bases, shaped like Classical amphorae, and combining a modern feel with a French Neoclassical stylistic influence, make for an elegant and striking addition to a contemporary interior. Made of silvered-bronze and cut-glass, and probably crafted in America, the ribbed, ovoid glass bodies of the pieces are shaped like Classical vases, and their flared necks sit below a pair of collars, which are engraved with a guilloche border. The high-scrolling handles on either side are decorated with a combination of female mask-heads in small circular roundels, and large male heads, possibly grotesque masks or satyr-faces, and the base of the handles where they are mounted to the body. The vase-lamps are subsequently mounted on circular socles, and square, acanthus-cast, silver bases.