French Country · Encyclopedia · Fire and Light
Oil lamp
Lamps whose wick soaked in a reservoir of oil, in use since the Palaeolithic and still found in the French countryside in the early twentieth century. They were called chaleil in the Charente and chalein or calen in the South.
French: lampe à huile, « chaleil » · Charente and the South
At a glance
- Regional names: chaleil, chalein, calen
- Material: usually iron or brass
- Fuel: vegetable oil, sometimes animal fat
- Use: hung close to where people worked or sat
What it is
The simplest lamp is a shallow vessel for oil with a wick resting in a spout. Country versions often have a hook and a hanging rod, sometimes with a second pan below to catch drips.
The book notes that they were hung near the place where people were sitting, and that the flame sometimes scorched the furniture: one armoire in the photographs still shows the mark.
A very long history
Oil lamps have lit human dwellings since prehistoric times. In rural France they remained in use well into the twentieth century, burning walnut, olive or other oils depending on the region, before kerosene lamps and electricity replaced them.
Collecting and displaying it
Look for hand-forged hooks and old repairs, which show long use. Avoid lighting an old lamp: seams may leak and the fumes are smoky.
Hung near a fireplace or on a beam, a chaleil keeps its quiet, archaic presence.
Source: Les Trésors de France: vieux métiers et objets d'autrefois (Éditions Rustica, Détours en France collection, 1995), pp. 116–121, with general background on the object. The book was published in 1995, so workshops, people and figures are described as they were then. Regional names and dates are given as the book records them; a style or a region of origin does not by itself date an individual piece.