Bouilotte lamp
late 18th century
Medium/TechniqueGilt-bronze, tole shade
DimensionsHeight x diameter: 54.6 × 27.9 cm (21 1/2 × 11 in.)
Credit LineGift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild
Accession number2019.649
On View
Not on viewClassificationsTools and equipment
Collections
ProvenanceBy 1938, Alphonse de Rothschild (b. 1878 – d. 1942) and Clarice de Rothschild (b. 1894 – d. 1967), Vienna; 1938, confiscated from Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild by Nazi forces (possibly no. AR 1507) [see note 1]; taken to the Kunsthistorisches Museum and stored at the Central Depot, Neue Burg, Vienna; October 5, 1942, given over to the Federal Monuments Office, Vienna and subsequently moved to Alt Aussee; recovered by Allied forces; October 16, 1947, returned to Clarice de Rothschild, New York [see note 2]; by descent to her daughter, Bettina Looram de Rothschild (b. 1924 - d. 2012); about 1990/1992, given by Bettina Looram de Rothschild to members of her family; 2019, gift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 19, 2019)
NOTES:
[1] With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March, 1938, the possessions of Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild were seized and expropriated almost immediately by Nazi forces. This lamp appears in a Nazi-generated inventory of 1939, perhaps as one of the two items listed under no. AR (Alphonse Rothschild) 1507: "Ein Paar Bronzeleuchter mit Akanthusblattwerk, Baluster mit Kapitäl." Katalog beschlagnahmter Sammlungen, inbesondere der Rothschild-Sammlungen in Wien, Verlags-Nr. 4938, Staatsdruckerei Wien, 1939, Privatarchiv, reproduced in Sophie Lillie, "Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens" (Vienna, 2003), p. 1052.
[2] Card no. AR 1507, Bundesdenkmalamt, Vienna, available on the website of the Zentral Depot Karteien online. This was probably among the many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis, which were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria to be kept safe from wartime bombing. Allied troops recovered the looted artwork at the end of World War II, and established collecting points where the art could be identified for restitution to its rightful owners. In 1947 Clarice de Rothschild visited the salt mines at Alt Aussee, where she was able to identify the crates of works of art from her family’s collection, facilitating its return shortly thereafter. The date of return is noted on the Central Depot card.
NOTES:
[1] With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March, 1938, the possessions of Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild were seized and expropriated almost immediately by Nazi forces. This lamp appears in a Nazi-generated inventory of 1939, perhaps as one of the two items listed under no. AR (Alphonse Rothschild) 1507: "Ein Paar Bronzeleuchter mit Akanthusblattwerk, Baluster mit Kapitäl." Katalog beschlagnahmter Sammlungen, inbesondere der Rothschild-Sammlungen in Wien, Verlags-Nr. 4938, Staatsdruckerei Wien, 1939, Privatarchiv, reproduced in Sophie Lillie, "Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens" (Vienna, 2003), p. 1052.
[2] Card no. AR 1507, Bundesdenkmalamt, Vienna, available on the website of the Zentral Depot Karteien online. This was probably among the many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis, which were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria to be kept safe from wartime bombing. Allied troops recovered the looted artwork at the end of World War II, and established collecting points where the art could be identified for restitution to its rightful owners. In 1947 Clarice de Rothschild visited the salt mines at Alt Aussee, where she was able to identify the crates of works of art from her family’s collection, facilitating its return shortly thereafter. The date of return is noted on the Central Depot card.
about 1750
about 1805–10
mid-18th century
mid-18th century