Candlestick - with litophan light screen

The rectangular plinth rests on Baroque leaves two dolphins spring from the foot, holding the protruding candle stick and the thin central rod that supports the frame, which can be adjusted to light in all directions with a screw. The porcelain light screen is fixed in the frame by small clutches. The border decoration of Gothic lilies and the ogee cresting imitates a romantic window frame. When the light comes through the porcelain screen, the picture on it is presented in perspectives.

A similar frame with a stand, in the collection of the Museum für Kunstgewerbe in Hamburg, is published be Hermann Jedding (see Historismus in Hamburg und Norddeutschland. Hamburg 1977, Cat. No. 461, p.277). According to Jedding litophan paste was developed in 1827 in Munich - though other experts claim it was in Paris, by Baron P.Ch. de Bouroing. It was used mainly for portrait-painting or to reproduce some of the works of contemporary genre and landscape painters. In this case, the screen presents a group of children, in a shrubbery on the banks of a river: one of the boys is waving in a far-away boat. On the other side of the river there is a small town. The presentation of the naive scene is naturalistic in a refined way. The iron frame and the present inlay were probably paired later.