Doe and Hope

Description

The splendiferous gilt metal five-branch naturalistic hanging light, composed of a scalloped ceiling cup rose to a spray of five gilt-metal palm leaves over five fittings, to a turned beech-wood drop finial and mounts, surviving from the mid-century and most likely from France.

The light fitting is in very good and original condition. The whole does not suffer from losses, cracks or restoration with a good aged patination to the finishes. There is some light misshaping to the metal extremities though the fronds are easily bent back in place and two fronds have some surface scratching to them where some paint has been removed. It doesn’t appear to have a makers mark. We have given it a light clean and spray wax and the light is supplied with as found and not tested but with cabling ready to install though we suggest this is tested and carried out by a qualified electrician.

This light has similarities to designs by Maison Jansen who were a Paris-based interior decoration office founded in 1880 by Dutch-born Jean-Henri Jansen. Jansen is considered the first truly global design firm and from 1905 through to the 1980s, Jansen dispatched its luxury services through a cluster of energetic satellite offices spanning North and South America, Europe, and Africa. Whilst the company finally closed the doors of its 9 rue Royale headquarters in 1989, Jansen’s evolving, iconic style, a mix of 18th-century Bourbon finery, Hollywood theatrics, and English country house refinement, remains today the subject of much emulation and desire. This light is part of the movement in the 1970s to naturalistic light fittings, the palm being a real favourite at the time.

Very much of the moment, this style is now widely copied today in the various department stores this is a good chance to acquire an original period fitting.