A French Lamp Base, Art Deco figures around a globe.

Illustrated in "Ceramiche Robj" and considered a major design by the renowned sculptor and ceramicist, this large piece was probably made in early 1930s to coincide with the debut of the Exposition Coloniale Internationale in Paris, which attracted almost 9 million visitors in less than a year. Rare and striking, this porcelain table lamp base depicts the globe surmounted by a tightly composed cluster of nude female figures representing cultures around the world. The women depicted here, all glazed in a gorgeous snow-white glaze highlighted in gold, are clearly representing a range of nations in Asia and Africa, probably coinciding with the nations that were part of the French Colonial Empire in the 1930s, before they won their freedom. Much like the one surviving building from the Exposition, now the Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration, which features a massive bas relief mural by Alfred Janniot, this lamp is a tour de force of sculptural art that depicts people from around the world in their traditional dress. The lamp retains its original cloth cord but not its hardware above the base