Hello!
I found these light fittings in a skip the other day and I have been told that they're French Ormolu. When I came home I went on Google to find out what I could about them. I have learnt that the term Ormolu is 'ground gold' in French , but the process that was employed to create these gold 'clad' pieces was banned in 1840 due to adverse health risks , but despite this the practice carried on for around another hundred years. While reading I learnt that later on methods were developed to apply gold using different techniques , and that they also started to use a process where the applied layer wasn't actually gold at all , but a type of Bronze designed to replicate the look of gold. I read that they still call these pieces Ormolu , even though they were created in a different manner than the earlier pieces , and even though the gold looking surface may not actualy be gold. The light fittings that I found look like they are (were) of a fairly good quality. There is no 'mould flash' , and it has some fairly intricate details 'carved' into it. They do look very golden in colour , very much more-so than any brass that I have around my home. The gold looking surface looks 'painted' on , although when I cleaned some paint off of one of the pieces to clean it up , the white paint came off but none yellow or golden. One of the fittings has a bent arm which I susspect could easily be bent back in to shape without causing further damage.
I'm basicaly wandering their rough age and value , and also , if anybody could possibly tell from my pictures and given details , what are the chances that these pieces are actualy gold 'plated' ?
Many thanks in advance for any and all replies ,
Chris C
