Hand-made Petroleum-lamp

Among the valuable items from The Art Museum Vasile Grigore, painter and collector there is a special item, important considering its sentimental value: a petroleum-lamp hand-made produced by the artist’s father. In the archive of Grigore family are preserved photos documenting their rather modest house, where the family and their 12 children used to live. Back in those days, electricity was a luxury. Grigore family received as wedding gift a beautiful decorated Ditmar petroleum lamp made of maiolica. How was it possible that such a fragile object to survive for almost 100 years? Well, in order to protect the precious Ditmar lamp Grigore Ioan, the head of the family, produced another one of tinned brass, much more resistant. Being a skilled tinsmith at Atelierele C.F.R. Griviţa helped him in this respect. He was in his 40s when he decided to make this sturdy lamp. There must have been many things that this lamp has seen, including the first artistic works of Vasile Grigore!

27.5 cm height (without glass); cylindrical body - 12 cm height, 10 cm diameter; backside: metal shell instead of mirror; the oil lamp adjustment was made by a mechanism produced by Globus Company based in Zürich – with many shops in Romania (inscription:  GLOBUS AS – 3937 – 56).

© The Art Museum Vasile Grigore, painter and collector