Send your camel to bed
Shadows painting our faces
Traces of romance in our heads
Heaven's holding a half-moon
Shining just for us
Let's slip off to a sand dune, real soon
And kick up a little dust
1973, written by David Nichtern, sung by Maria Muldaur
Completing the theme of erotic bronzes from fin de siècle Austria is this Middle Eastern maiden posing provocatively under a palm tree. The palm fronds conceal a lightbulb and this lovely lamp is part of a series featuring various Arabic-inspired scenes under a sheltering palm. Of cold painted bronze, it is unmarked, but is no doubt from one of the many Austrian foundries that produced finely sculpted and cast bronzes in the late 1800s through the 1930s. A significant number of these bronzes engaged in Orientalism, with fanciful depictions of a mysterious, seductive, and decadent Middle East. The lamp is 11 inches tall.
A close up of the barely-robed water bearer. The cold painted patina is susceptible to wear, especially at any protruding edges, revealing glimpses of the gleaming bronze underneath
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