About this product
A table lamp from the legendary French interior design firm Maison Jansen, depicting two courting swans. Each swan is elegantly produced from patinated brass, with one slightly stretching its neck upwards. The organic curved lines of each bird sit atop an octagonal, ebony lacquered base. From this base protrudes a brass s-bend pole, which houses the light bulb. A gorgeous pagoda shade, made of laminated hard paper and also in a chic ebony, completes the piece.
Please note that although the lamp base is in a good condition, there is some wear on one side of the pagoda shade, with a slight peeling of the laminate – to be expected given the age of this piece.
The lamp is currently wired for EU plug sockets, but we can change this if required depending on the buyer’s location. This lamp takes E27 screw light bulbs.
CREATOR: Maison Jansen
PLACE OF ORIGIN: France
DATE OF MANUFACTURE: c. 1970’s
PERIOD: 1970 – 1979
MATERIALS & TECHNIQUES: Brass, wood, lacquer
CONDITION: Very good original condition.
WEAR: Wear consistent with age and use – some wear on one side of the shade, with slight peeling of the laminate.
AboutÂ
Maison Jansen (French: [mÉ›zɔ̃ ʒɑ̃sɑ̃]; English: House of Jansen) was a Paris-based interior decoration office founded in 1880 by Dutch-born Jean-Henri Jansen. Jansen is considered the first truly global design firm, serving clients in Europe, Latin America, North America and the Middle East. This House was located at 23, rue de l’Annonciation, Paris, and closed in 1989.
HistoryÂ
In the early 1920s Jean-Henri Jansen approached Stéphane Boudin, who was then working in the textile trimming business owned by his father Alexandre Boudin, and brought him on board. Accounts of the arrangement vary. Speculation existed that Boudin was able to provide financial solvency to the prominent but capital-poor atelier. Boudin’s attention to detail, concern for historical accuracy, and ability to create dramatic and memorable spaces brought increasing new work to the firm. Boudin was made director and presided over an expansion of the firm’s offices and income.
Furniture
Work
Under Boudin’s leadership, Maison Jansen provided services to the royal families of Belgium, Iran, and Serbia; Elsie de Wolfe, and Lady Olive Baillie’s Leeds Castle in Kent, England. The firm’s most published work was a project by Boudin and Paul Manno, the head of Jansen’s New York office, for the U.S. White House during the administration of John F. Kennedy. At the same time, Jansen completed the interior of the motor yacht Chambel IV, now renamed Northwind II. Northwind II is one of the few remaining complete Jansen commissions.
After Stéphane Boudin’s death in 1967, colleague Pierre Delbée took over the business. Maison Jansen came under new ownership in 1979 and finally closed in 1989.
