Pair of shokudaï mounted as lamps

Pairs of shokudai candlesticks mounted as lamps.

Shokudai, Japanese candlesticks widely used during the Meiji period (1868-1912) to light temples, are distinguished by the uniqueness of the location that can accommodate a candle. Their aesthetic quality explains the permanence of their use even today.

The pair presented here, through its simplicity, its functionality and its decorative plant register, reflects the quintessence of Japanese art. Intended to be placed on the ground, the whole is raised by three organically shaped feet. The body rises elegantly, like a tall stem, between a base and a smaller bobeche carrying the now electrified candle stick. Both are in the shape of cups and their superposition allows you to imagine the flow of wax, as conducive to meditation as that of water from a fountain. Their bases offer a chiseled decoration facilitating the removal of solidified wax. This functionality matches the delicacy of the carving. Leaves and chrysanthemums are organized in concentric registers from a gadrooned ring, each being the subject of individualized decorative attention, in a seedling on a grainy background.

Electrification, through its discretion, takes nothing away from the grace and poetry of this pair of lamps whose dimensions are given without the lampshade.