Hanging Brass Argand Lamp

Created: c. 1805^[1]

Materials: brass

Dimensions: H (overall): 104.1 (41 in.); main housing: 44.5 x 59.7 (17 1/2 x 23 1/2 in.); chimneys H: 19.1 (7 1/2 in.); D: 5.1 (2 in.); upper canopy H: 19.1 (7 1/2 in.); D: 24.8 (9 3/4 in.)

Location: Entrance Hall

Provenance: Thomas Jefferson; by purchase to James Barclay; by purchase to Uriah P. Levy; by descent to Jefferson Monroe Levy; by purchase to Thomas Jefferson Foundation in 1923.

Accession Number: 1923-16

Historical Notes:This four-branch brass hanging Argand lamp, with a central oil reservoir, and acanthus-leaf ornaments, was probably made in England.^[2] It may be the "passage lanthern" that Jefferson purchased for Monticello in 1805 from the Philadelphia stationers Caldcleugh and Thomas.^[3] "Lanthern" then referred to lamps of this type, as well as hanging lamps for candles consisting of glass panes in a metal frame. Two years later, Jefferson bught "lanthern ornaments" from the same firm, including a balance shell, brass chain and double pullies, suggesting that at this time the Entrance Hall ceiling was prepared for hanging the lamp.^[4]

The inventory taken after Jefferson's death fails to mention this hanging lamp in the Entrance Hall, but it does include some wall-mounted lamps that were probably also Argand types. Jefferson sent some of the first Argand lamps from England to the United States in 1786.

Footnotes

1. ↑ This article is based on Stein, Worlds, 416.
2. ↑ For comparable English lamps and accessories, see Winterthur Museum trade catalog #2872, [Catalog of Lighting Devices], c. 1810-1815.
3. ↑ Caldcleugh & Thomas invoice, May 30, 1805, Massachusetts Historical Society. See also Jefferson, July 12, 1805, in MB, 2:1159.
4. ↑ Caldcleugh & Thomas invoice, May 30, 1805, Massachusetts Historical Society. See also Jefferson, August 29, 1807, in MB, 2:1209.