POSSIBLY BY OSLER, LATE 19TH CENTURY

The firm of F. & C. Osler was renowned for its production of impressive scale chandeliers from 1831. Its reputation was enhanced by the export of lighting and even glass furniture to colonial India, to the extent that a showroom was established in Calcutta. Osler's designs are also regarded as being innovative for their time. After the invention of the electric light bulb in 1880, Osler's designs embraced the new technology of electricity with specifically engineered straight arms and downward lights. The acorn and spherule finials on this chandelier are details typical of Osler's work as can be seen in the Edwardian catalogue design reproduced here (see J. P. Smith, Osler's Crystal for Royalty and Rajahs, exhibition catalogue, Mallett, London, 1991).