BY EDWARD F. CALDWELL & CO., NEW YORK, CIRCA 1915

The E. F. Caldwell & Co. design ledger indicates an order for these exuberant Chinoiserie wall lights for a Mrs. H. Straus.  Caldwell’s clientele was nothing short of illustrious; the firm manufactured fixtures for many of New York’s affluent families of the Gilded Age, including Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Carnegie and the Vanderbilts.  Though speculative, the order may have been filled for Mrs. Theresa Straus (née Kuhn), whose husband Herbert Nathan Straus (d. 1933) was the son of Isidor Straus, the former owner of Macy’s department store who met his demise on The Titanic in 1912.