Cassolette Style Lamps
It was the stylish French, who designed an elegant, 18th century solution, called the cassolette, simply described as a vase, with a perforated cover to emit perfumes. But, of course, nothing designed for the wealthy, 18th century house was ever simple.
A very pretty pair of early 20th century, French, Regency style, cassolette accent lamps. The stuff, (originally perfume burners), supported on fine tripods of cast bronze, the legs, with cloven feet, the capitals terminating in classical heads. The tripods on polished stands, mounted on square, cream, marble bases. The cassolettes and square bases in polished cream marble, the marble with iron-red inclusions.
These are a very classic pair of cassolette style lamps, retaining all the elegance of this shape, virtually unchanged for the past three hundred years as used in Europe.
Lady Hesston leaves us an insight via a note sent to Mathew Boulton, one of the great English designers of the 18th century. She had lent Boulton her perfume burners, or cassolettes as a model, from which he designed his examples. After a time she urged him for their return by explaining, ”my friends reproach me that I do not regale their noses with fine odours after entertaining their palates with soup and ragouts”. It was the custom for cassolettes to make their entry with dessert and chase away the smell of dinner.
At this time, cassolettes were burners, which were lit and slowly burned to produce a beautiful perfume. Many and varied were the “recipes” for the pastes burned in them. By example:- a base of fine charcoal with equal parts of grain musk, ambergris, seeds of the vanilla pod, attar of roses and orris powder, with enough gum acacia to work the whole together into a paste.
As the 18th century moved through the 19th century, conditions improved with the advent of sanitation and electricity.
By the early 20th century the cassolette had lost its original function, but was retained, no doubt to its formal style, finally appearing as an elegant lamp.