Pierced Scrollwork Table Lamp, Antiqued Bronze Finish with Burgundy Damask Shade, Old World Revival, c. 1995–2010

The Piece

A dramatic lamp with genuine architectural presence. The body is a hexagonal tapering urn — a torch form, narrow at the foot and flaring to a wide shoulder — pierced entirely through with a repeating lattice of scrolled arabesques, so the whole column reads as openwork rather than solid mass. It stands on a stepped hexagonal plinth carried on small bracket feet, and that plinth is pierced to match, so the ornament runs uninterrupted from the table surface to the shoulder.

The finish is a deep antiqued bronze-black, rubbed back at every edge and high point to warm copper, which makes the scrollwork read three-dimensionally even in low light. Above sits a turned neck, a standard socket, and a dark pinecone finial.

The shade is the piece's other half: a cut-corner square bell in burgundy chenille jacquard, woven with a large acanthus and floral damask in bronze and antique gold, lined in cream and finished with a soft folded hem. Lit, the openwork body throws a genuinely beautiful pattern of scrolled shadows onto the wall behind it — this lamp does something after dark that most lamps don't.

History & Provenance

The vocabulary is Mediterranean and old — pierced scrollwork of this kind descends from Moorish mashrabiya screens and the wrought-iron grilles of Spain and southern Italy, where openwork was used to filter light and air in equal measure. The object is thoroughly modern. This lamp belongs to the Old World / Tuscan revival, the decorating movement that dominated American interiors from the mid-1990s through roughly 2010, when warm terracotta walls, heavy damask, faux-finished plaster, and antiqued bronze were the language of the well-appointed living room.

That moment produced some genuinely good design. Manufacturers invested real money in mold work, and the better pieces — like this one — have depth of relief and finish quality that reads as far older than it is. It is styled as an antique rather than being one, and the fair way to sell it is to say so plainly.

Product Details

Why It Belongs in Your Home

Some lamps light a room and some lamps furnish it. This one furnishes it. The pierced body gives it visual weight without bulk, so it holds a console, an entry table, or the end of a long sideboard where a solid base would look heavy. Turn it on in a dim room and the openwork does the rest, casting scrolled shadows up the wall — it is as much a light fixture as a lamp.

The burgundy shade is a real color decision, and it pays off against warm neutrals, terracotta, deep green, leather, and wood. If you'd rather the base carry the room alone, a plain cream or oatmeal drum turns it into a completely different and much quieter lamp, and the body is handsome enough to take the change.