Lamps of Guimard’s Métro entrances
Two cast-iron stems bending over the steps, ending in red glass lamps like buds.
Guimard designed the entrances for the first line of the Paris Métro in 1900. About 86 survive and are protected as historic monuments. Replicas have been given to Montreal, Moscow and Lisbon, and one stands in the garden of MoMA.
Materials: Cast iron, painted green, and orange-red glass
Manufacture: Standardised cast-iron parts that could be combined into entrances of different sizes.
The lamps like plant buds, or an animal’s eyes, on curving stems.
The METROPOLITAIN sign between the stems, in Guimard’s own lettering.