Salvador DALI (1904-1989) – Jean-Michel FRANK (1895-1941)

Lamp Dalí for Jean-Michel FRANK, circa 1930

Jean-Michel FRANK Committee Certificate No. 2025/2190

Plaster, wicker, and cotton thread.
Overall maximum height 45 cm. Maximum diameter 47 cm.
Plaster base: H. 5.5 x W. 28.5 x D. 24 cm.
Plaster ball: Maximum diameter 24 cm (+/-).
Wicker lampshade: H. 22.5 x W. 47 cm

Rectangular plaster base with two raised side edges, evoking the characteristic shape of an “opium smoker“ headrest *. A large circular hollow is made in the center, into which an irregularly shaped, flattened ball, also made of plaster, with a hollow interior, fits, evoking a large pebble polished by the sea.

* Frank, Cocteau, Dali, and many artists and intellectuals of their generation indulged in opium.
A terracotta lamp base by Frank from around 1929, in the same spirit but positioned vertically, is named Chinese Pillow. cf. Jean-Michel Frank, the strange luxury of nothing, P.E. Martin-Vivier, pages 264, 318.

A lampshade made of woven wicker and cotton thread, with a circular opening at the top and base, fits onto the ball, to which it is attached by means of a thread fastened to six metal hooks arranged around the perimeter of the ball’s opening. A removable plaster cone, used as a reflector diffusing a halo of indirect light, fits into the upper opening of the lampshade.
An electrical socket is fixed on a square wooden base sealed in the plaster at the bottom of the ball, with the power cord thus passing through the bottom to exit from the side of the base.
An ivory wire outlet ring is set into the side of the base.

The ball rests freely on the base, whose hollow it fits, allowing the lamp’s inclination to be varied to some extent; knowing that it must absolutely be presented tilted in a kind of sensual ” sway “ – and not straight and rigid – as it appears in all vintage photographs by Jean Collas, François Kollar, and others, taken notably in Frank’s boutique.