640. TABLE LAMP, Restoration, France first half of the 19th century, burnished gilt and dark patinated bronze, badge marked CARCEL inventeur Breveté rue de l'arbre sec No. 18 A PARIS.

Square base plate, palmette border decoration, pedestal crowned by laurel wreath, fluted column, height 68 cm Table lamp follows the traditional structure of the lamps invented by Bernard-Guillaume Carcel (1750-1818) and is an example of the industrial revolution of the early 19th century . Carcel trained as a watchmaker, but really became famous for his invention of an alternative to Argand lamps. Instead of having the oil container placed above the burner, which cast a shadow and made the lamp top heavy, Carcel designed a lamp with the oil container below the burner, in the lamp body. To keep the oil moving up to the burner, Carcel housed a clockwork mechanism in the lamp base that drove a small pump submerged in the oil tank. The assignment key was located at the bottom of the lamp base. Patented from 1800, Carcel also claimed that his lamps could stay lit for sixteen hours without needing to refill oil.