Antique Victorian Corinthian Column Ormolutable Lamp 19th C

This is a large and splendid antique Victorian ormolu Corinthian column table oil lamp now converted to electricity, circa 1890 in date.

This opulent antique table lamp features an elegant Corinthian Capital decorated with classical ornate foliage in the form of splendid acanthus leaves above a striking shaft with trailing vine leaves.

It stands on a large and weighted stepped square base with four petal feet.

Add an element of Greek Classical style to your home with this exquisite antique table lamp.

Condition:

In excellent working condition, having been beautifully cleaned and rewired; please see photos for confirmation.

Dimensions in cm:

Height 53.5 cm x Width 19 cm x Depth 19 cm

Dimensions in inches:

Height 1 foot, 9 inches x Width 7 inches x Depth 7 inches

Corinthian capital

It has been suggested that the foliage of the Greek Corinthian capital was based on the Acanthus spinosus, that of the Roman on the Acanthus mollis. The leaves are generally carved in two "ranks" or bands, like one leafy cup set within another. One of the most beautiful Corinthian capitals is that from the Tholos of Epidaurus (400 BC); it illustrates the transition between the earlier Greek capital, as at Bassae, and the Roman version that Renaissance and modern architects inherited and refined.

In Roman architectural practice, capitals are briefly treated in their proper context among the detailing proper to each of the "Orders", in the only complete architectural textbook to have survived from classical times, the Ten Books on Architecture, by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, better known just as Vitruvius, dedicated to the emperor Augustus. The various orders are discussed in Vitruvius' Books III and IV. Vitruvius practically describes Roman practice. He gives some tales about the invention of each of the Orders, but he does not give a hard and fast set of canonical rules for the execution of capitals.

 

Two further, specifically Roman orders of architecture have their characteristic capitals, the sturdy and primitive Tuscan capitals, typically used in military buildings, similar to Greek Doric, but with fewer small moldings in its profile, and the invented Composite capitals not even mentioned by Vitruvius, which combined Ionic volutes and Corinthian acanthus capitals, in an order that was otherwise quite similar in proportions to the Corinthian, itself an order that Romans employed much more often than Greeks.

Ormolu - Gilt Bronze (from French 'or moulu', signifying ground or pounded gold) is an 18th-century English term for applying finely ground, high-carat gold in a mercury amalgam to an object of bronze. The mercury is driven off in a kiln, leaving behind a gold-coloured veneer known as 'gilt bronze'.

The manufacture of true ormolu employs a process known as mercury-gilding or fire-gilding, in which a solution of nitrate of mercury is applied to a piece of copper, brass, or bronze, followed by the application of an amalgam of gold and mercury. The item was then exposed to extreme heat until the mercury burned off and the gold remained, adhered to the metal object.

After around 1830, because legislation had outlawed the use of mercury, other techniques were used instead. Electroplating is the most common modern technique. Ormolu techniques are essentially the same as those used on silver to produce silver-gilt.

Our reference: A5447