EARLY 19TH CENTURY

With its unusual star-studded dome and cockerel arms, this elegant chandelier typifies the Russian variant of the Empire style, which combined traditional French with characteristally Russian decorative elements. The chasing is soft and shimmering and this treatment also reveals its Russian origin. It relates to various chandeliers in the Russian Imperial collections, but in particular to various examples at Pavlovsk, which was redecorated after the fire of 1803 by the celebrated architect and designer Andrei Voronikhin (1759-1814). These include one in the antechamber on the ground floor and two in the so-called Pilaster room, which are illustrated in E. Ducamp, Pavlovsk, The Palace and the Park, Paris, 1993, p. 160 and A. Kennett, The Palaces of Leningrad, London, 1973, pp. 99.