19TH CENTURY, PROBABLY FIRST QUARTER

The lamps with winged 'nike' figures, perhaps symbolising the Element of Fire, pour oil from ewers while kneeling on a palm-flowered, serpent-handled and lion-footed Roman lamp. The pattern derives from one illustrated in C. Percier and P. Fontaine, Recueil de decorations intrieuses, 1801, (pl. XVIII, fig.7). A contemporary lustreware version, of this same pattern, is illustrated in J. Bourne and V. Brett Lighting in the Domestic Interior, London, 1991, fig. 430. Another bronze version, with a marble base, was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 27 February 1986, lot 4.