What Is It?: Blanc de Chine

White lamp. That’s what you want to call it. And if you search eBay for “white lamp,” you’ll come up with a plethora of items that look like they came from JC Penny in 1984, or belong in a Rachel Ashwell decorating book.

But really, you’re looking for one of these Hollywood Regency-style white lamps, either the pierced kind or the pineapple one in the middle.  (And who can blame you, they’re awesome!)  What you need to search for: blanc de chine.

Some purists are going to balk and exclaim that no, in fact, blanc de chine is only this certain type of Chinese porcelain, blah, blah, etc.  But for your purposes — which is to use keywords to locate things on the cheap so you don’t have to buy them at retail — a keyword search for “blanc de chine” brings up exactly what you’re looking for.  And not just lamps, but all kinds of big, white, fancy sculptural objects for that oh-so-Domino aesthetic on an oh-so-BackGarage budget.

Wondering how to describe a certain object so you can use keywords to search for it better?  Email me pictures and I’ll see if I can help out.

To see more What Is It and Object Lesson posts, click here.