Nautila

The nautilus coils its shell into a perfect spiral. Philippe Parent mounted two examples of it in silvered bronze on either side of a fluted shelf, like two shells set on a ledge. The light wells up from between the volutes. The polished metal sharpens the drawing of the spiral. The sconce belongs as much to the cabinet of curiosities as to lighting: a fragment of shoreline that dresses the wall with its sea air.