Moroccan Brass Lantern Red & Milk Glass, from Marrakech

Count the panels ten vertical bays, each one a separate pane of glass cut to fit and soldered into a brass frame built around it. The glass is milk white through the body, with bands of red running across the top, middle, and base. Above it sits the dome, and the dome is the part that takes the longest: solid brass, pierced by hand with a chisel and hammer, one hole at a time, in an interlocking rosette pattern that runs unbroken around the curve. Off, it reads as a heavy geometric object. Switched on, the glass goes warm and the dome stops being metal — the pierced work throws its pattern onto whatever is above it, and the red bands pull a flush of color across the floor.

What Makes It

• Pierced brass dome, cut by hand no stamping, no laser. Each hole is chiselled individually, which is why the pattern shifts slightly where the curve tightens.
• Ten glass bays, individually fitted every pane is cut to its own frame and soldered in place, so the brass lines you see are structural, not decorative.
• Red glass in three bands top, waist, and base. Unlit they read almost black against the white; lit, they're the loudest thing in the room.
• Octagonal base with cut-through medallions the same rosette repeats in the brass footing, so light escapes downward as well as up.

The Craft

The frame comes first brass sheet cut, bent, and soldered into the octagonal armature. Then the glass is cut pane by pane to fit the openings that already exist, which is the reverse of factory production, where the glass sets the size. The piercing on the dome is done with a hammer and a set of chisels against a pitch block, working from the inside out. A metalworker in Marrakech spends years on the frame work before he's allowed near the dome, because a slip on a pierced curve can't be undone the sheet is scrapped and the piece starts over.

Details

• Material: Solid brass frame, cut glass panels
• Technique: Hand-pierced brass, hand-cut and soldered glass
• Origin: Marrakech, Morocco

Care

Dust the brass with a dry soft cloth. Glass panels clean with a slightly damp cloth keep water away from the soldered seams. No polish or chemical cleaner on the pierced dome; it collects in the cuts and dulls them.

What's Included

• One brass and glass lantern
• Origin Passport card with QR code scan it for the metalworker's name, workshop location in Marrakech, and photographs of the piercing in progress