This wall oil lamp, one of a pair, features a rare vaseline glass shade and an intricately cast brass holder. Vaseline glass lamps were popular among wealthy Peranakan families in Singapore, Malacca and Penang in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. Most were imported from Europe by European and later Chinese merchants in these port towns. The lamp and holder were made in the Art Nouveau style, an international style of decorative art, design and architecture, developed in the 1880s and 1890s and became popular from 1925 until the 1940s.
