Joseph Shuttleworth (d.1913) commissioned the architect Henry Clutton (d.1893) in 1872 to design a house inspired by Gawthorpe Hall, Lancashire, the ancestral home of the Lords Shuttleworth, and it is likely that these candlesticks were acquired by him in the last quarter of the 19th Century.

These imposing candlesticks have vase-nozzles supported on acanthus-wrapped baluster stems with bacchic tripod feet that derive from antique candelabrum. Their domed pedestals, tazza pans and krater-vases are enriched with antique fluting, while the double-baluster stems are conjoined by central wreaths. Their elegant form, evolved from Louis XVI pattern candelabrum, such as those designed by Jean-Louis Prieur in the 1760's (see H.Ottomeyer and P.Proschel Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich 1986, fig. 3.4.6.) is related to the oeuvre of the Roman workshop of Giuseppe Valadier (d.1817). A related altar garniture in St Andrew's Cathedral, Subiaco, with acanthus-enriched baluster stems upon hairy-paw feet is illustrated in A.Gonzalez-Palacios Ed. Antologia di Belle Arti : Studi sul Neoclassicismo III, Italy 1992, p.98, fig. 4, while similar designs for candlesticks, dated 1795, are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (illustrated in A.Gonzalez-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Milan, 1984, p.122, fig.265)