Tag: Neo-Romanian Style Lamp

Neo-Romanian style corbel lamp

Valentin Mandache
Neo-Romanian style corbel lamp, mid-1930s house, Kiseleff area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

I located, during my “The Late Neo-Romanian style” architecture tour a couple of weeks ago, an exterior lamp of that design, which is a rare object, with only a handful of such artifacts still surviving throughout Bucharest. I already documented three other Neo-Romanian lamp finds in the following articles: incense burner shape lamps, lantern-like lamp and Greek cross shape lamp. In this particular example, the relic is attached to an elaborate wood and concrete-modelled corbel, being made from molded glass meshed in an attractive wire pattern in tone with the decorations featured on corbel ends. It decorates a late Neo-Romanian style house dating from the mid-1930s, which features a large access stair covered by an extensive roof eave supported at regular intervals by corbels, all originally embellished with the interesting glass and wire lamp model presented in this article.

Neo-Romanian style corbel lamp, mid-1930s house, Kiseleff area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

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I endeavour through this series of periodic articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.

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If you plan acquiring or selling a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in sourcing and transacting the property, specialist research, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.

Neo-Romanian style lamp

Valentin Mandache
Neo-Romanian style lamp, Amzei area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

The Neo-Romanian style lamps are a rarity, so you can imagine my joy in finding the one presented in the photograph above. It adorns the entrance of Ion IC Bratianu’s memorial house in Amzei Square, Bucharest, an edifice built in 1908 and designed by the architect Petre Antonescu, one of the most prolific and imaginative architects of the Neo-Romanian current. I was able to identify only a handful such artefacts so far, see the example here, which is incidentally designed by the same architect. I believe the object has been designed at the same time as the house, and is not a later addition. I like its “oriental” appearance, reminding of lamps manufactured in the Islamic Mediterranean world. The Neo-Romanian motifs are the rope motif abstraction noticeable in the zigzag line decorating its frame, together with the solar disc on the lamp bottom, similar in aspect with medallions that decorate the frieze of many neo-Romanian houses.

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I endeavour through this series of periodic articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.

***********************************************

If you plan acquiring or selling a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in sourcing and transacting the property, specialist research, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contactpage of this weblog.

Rare Neo-Romanian style lamp hanger

Valentin Mandache
Neo-Romanian style lamp hanger, house dating from the 1910s, Vasile Lascar area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

The Neo-Romanian style street and exterior wall lamp artefacts are very rare occurrences within the build historic environment of Bucharest and Romania in general, in sharp contrast with the abundance of their Art Deco counterparts, a consequence of the fact that the Neo-Romanian style is essentially a historicist order that makes references to the romantic medieval past, where the light and its various uses have commonly a secondary place. The interesting lamp hanger presented in the photograph above is affixed at the centre of a window arch, which adorns a grand Neo-Romanian style house dating from the early 1910s. It was quite difficult to spot, high up from the street level, surrounded by other architectural embellishments that dwarfed it. The lamp hanger, used for hanging petrol or candle lanterns, dates from an era when the street lighting in Bucharest was done using mainly petrol lamps; the electric bulb shade attached to it, seen in the photograph, being a decades later addition. The ornamentation of this particular hanger is represented by the typical Neo-Romanian curly grape vine and leaves motif, with a flower at its centre, similar with countless of other decorative artefacts such as in the case of wall and balcony panels, which I documented in an article on this blog a few days earlier.

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I endeavour through this daily series of articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.

***********************************************

If you plan acquiring or selling a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in sourcing and transacting the property, specialist research, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.

Neo-Romanian style wall lamps: incense burner shape

Valentin Mandache
Neo-Romanian style exterior wall lamps adorning the edifice (dating from early 1920s) of the former Marmorosch Blank Bank in central Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

These two exquisite lamps adorn the façade of the former Marmorosch Blank Bank headquarters in the Lipscani area of Bucharest. The bank has been one of the main financial institutions of inter-war Romania. It became, trough its mortgage and other type of loan lending to the population and businesses, one of the engines behind the inter-war Bucharest building boom, which saw the emergence of the Neo-Romanian and Art Deco architectural style skyline of the city. The bank headquarters were erected between 1915 – 1923, with a break during the Great War, after a design by the architect Petre Antonescu, one of the most seminal Romanian architects. The building incorporates elements inspired from late medieval Romanian church architecture originating in both Wallachia and Moldova. The Moldovan elements are discernible in the Gothic patterns and ornaments as can be seen in the photograph above in the dress of the window opening. I like the more unusual shape of the wall lamps, which is a rendering of the chain held incense burner used by priests performing Christian ceremonies, perfectly in tone with the overall church inspired architecture and decoration of the building.

***********************************************

I endeavor through this series of daily articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.

***********************************************

If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in sourcing the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.