Sorry, but these lamps really have little to do with George and Martha Washington except for the way they dress and dress.

Most George and Martha Washington lamps were made of porcelain around 1940. They were typically made with 22K real gold trim. Try all you want, but you can never duplicate the gold-colored trim found on use in these beautiful porcelain lamps unless you use real gold.

Although commonly called George and Martha Washington lamps, the decorative figures that adorn these porcelain lamps actually depict wealthy members of the court of French King Louis XV around 1765.

Decorative figures are often in various states of romance, picnics, dancing, poetry, singing, etc. The original paintings for many of these lamps were by the French artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806). Fragonard was well known for his highly lascivious and hedonistic art that was highly sought after by wealthy art patrons from the fun-loving and morally relaxed court of Louis XV. George and Martha’s lamp decorations represent Fragonard’s much more reserved paintings.

The George and Martha Washington lamps are no longer made and the value of these vintage lamps continues to rise.

George Washington lived between 1732 and 1799, so he was alive when the original designs for these beautiful lamps were created in France.

In 1775, the Continental Congress named Washington commander-in-chief of the American revolutionary forces. He was later elected president in 1789, but George and Martha Washington had nothing to do with these lamps, except that they both had a similar manner of dress that was also common in France during that period.

-Jim Hoyle