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France's Other Gift to America.


Lamp
Two hundred years ago, the French created illumination for a popular precursor to poker known as "bouillotte." The result was an elegant, practical lamp of the same name. Although the card game faded from memory, this design, a four-arm Bouillotte in polished silver, enjoyed a growing vogue in America during the early decades of the 19th century, and several pieces have become part of the permanent collection of White House furnishings in the first floor formal rooms of state.

The bouillotte "candelabrum" consists of a dish-shaped base--made to hold game tokens — that supports a shaft fitted with candle brackets and a metal shade. The height of the brackets and shade adjusts with screw keys. As the candles burned down, the shade would be lowered via the screw key to shield the players' eyes from the candles' glare.

William Rieder, curator of decorative arts at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, says, "The persistent popularity of the bouillotte lamp is based partly on the world's love of French decorative arts of the late 18th and early 19th centuries." This artifact of not only beautifully illuminates interiors but accommodates today's different-sized desks and tables with its adjustable lampshade.
(Height: 35"; Width: 19"; Base: 9" round; Shade Size: 13" x 19" x 7 1/2")

Bouillotte Lamp.

Price: $599.

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