Antique Lamps - In Cassolette Style

Prior to the development of modern sanitation etc, hygiene was poorly understood and certainly received very little attention. The air was full of "smells" from a multitude of sources and one of the most interesting comes from that indefatigable diarist, Samuel Pepys.

He speaks of his late 17th century London childhood, with London under a constant cloud of sooty smoke from open fires, brewers and dyers, soap makers and salt boilers, the smoke from their chimneys covering everything with sooty grime.

He records how "wall hangings, pictures and clothes turned yellow and brown like leaves in autumn" and winter under vests, sewn on for the season against the cold, were the colour of mud by the time spring arrived!!

That other great diarist and contemporary of Samuel Pepys, John Evelyn, made a special note in his diary in August 1653 that he was going to experiment with "an annual hair wash"

Throughout history and certainly into the early 20th century, offensive smells were a real problem, within every house, a large family, apprentices, maids and animals all contributing, plus cooking, dirty linen, kept for the monthly wash! and chamber pots, which were emptied into the yard or street.

By the middle of the 18th century efforts were being made to deal with this vast problem, although more on a household level rather than on the level of public works. We must remember that society was heavily classified and it was the wealthy end of society who were the innovators, simply because they could afford it.

It was those fashionable French, who designed a stylish 18th century solution with the cassolette, simply describes as a vase, with a perforated cover to emit perfumes. But, of course, nothing designed for the wealthy 18th century house was ever "simple" Lady Hesston leaves us a note sent to Mathew Boulton, one of the great designers of the 18th century; she had lent Boulton her perfume burners, or cassolettes, from which he designed his examples. After a time she urged him for their return by explaining," my friends reproach me that I do not regale their noses with fine odours after entertaining their palates with soup and ragouts".

The cassolettes used to make their entry with dessert and chase away the smell of dinner". At this time the cassolettes were burners, which were lit and slowly burned to produce a beautiful perfume. Many and varied were the "recipes" for the pastes burned in the cassolettes.

By example-: a base of fine charcoal with equal parts of grain musk, ambergris, seeds of the vanilla pod, attar of roses and orris powder, with enough gum acacia to work the whole together into a paste.

As the 18th century moved through the 19th century, conditions improved with the advent of sanitation and electricity. By the early 20th century the cassolette had lost its original function, but was retained, no doubt, to its formal style, finally appearing as an elegant lamp.