Pair of French Empire Style Wall Sconces, Gilt Bronze and Green Patina with Opaline Globes — France, Mid-20th Century

The torch sconce is one of the oldest lighting forms in the Western interior — carried forward from antiquity through the Empire period, when Napoleon's designers made it their own. The form is deliberate: a tapered shaft, like a torch held upright, crowned with an acanthus cup and a globe of diffused light. Where the chandelier announces, the torch sconce suggests — it throws light upward and outward with an intimacy that no ceiling fixture can replicate. The great Parisian houses, among them Lucien Gau and Jansen, kept this form in production well into the twentieth century because rooms kept asking for it.

This pair is French, mid-twentieth century, in the Empire manner, each sconce built as a tapered dark green shaft — the torch body — topped with a gilt bronze acanthus-leaf cup from which a white opaline globe rises. A horizontal brass arm extends from a circular gilt backplate to carry a second matching torch, so each sconce presents two lights at different heights — a composition that fills a wall with both structure and warmth. The acanthus modelling on the cups is confident and crisp; the gilt bronze finials at the base of each shaft are cast as pine cones, the neoclassical symbol of abundance that the Empire decorators borrowed from Rome and never returned. The source attributes production to Lucien Gau, one of the distinguished Parisian bronze foundries whose work appeared in the rooms of Jansen and comparable houses — a provenance that places these firmly outside the category of decorative reproduction.

Whoever lit their rooms with these before you kept them in good general order. Both sconces are functional; the opaline globes are sound; minor marks of use are present and consistent with age, as photographed. They arrive fully rewired and ready to hang.

They arrive professionally packed and fully insured. All duties and import charges are our responsibility — you pay nothing beyond the listed price. Returns are accepted within 30 days.

DETAILS:
Size: each — Height 40 cm (15.7 in) · Opaline globe diameter 13 cm (5.1 in) · Backplate diameter 9 cm (3.5 in)
Material: gilt bronze fittings and acanthus cups; dark green patinated shaft; white opaline glass globes
Style/Period: French Empire style, mid-20th century — attributed to Lucien Gau
Lampshades: opaline globes included
Shipping: professionally packed, fully insured, worldwide — all import duties paid by us, nothing to settle on delivery
Condition: good; minor marks of use and small paint traces consistent with age; opaline globes sound; fully functional
Returns: accepted within 30 days

Read our condition standard. Please ask if you need additional photographs or measurements.

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