GENOA, MID-18TH CENTURY

This magnificent pair of Genoese chandeliers, with their entire structures covered in small facetted beads, are typical of the Barocchetto period. Produced from the end of the 17th Century until the mid-18th Century, these chandeliers were favoured by Ligurian and Piedmontese aristocratic families. 18th-century Genoese rock crystal chandeliers were also often surmounted by a corona, alluding to their noble patronage, as seen on this pair and on lot 34. A similar corona-headed chandelier was also sold from the collection of Giuseppe Rossi at Sotheby's, London, 10-12 March 1999, lot 159 (£62,000).
Another similar example was offered anonymously at Christie's, London, 7 July 2011, lot 534 and a closely related chandelier is hung in the Chinese room (or Gabinetto cinese) in the Palazzo Reale, Turin. It was exhibited in 1963 at the 'Mostra del Barocco Piemontese' (V. Viale, Mostra del Barocco Piemontese, exhibition catalogue, vol.III, Turin, 1963, pl. 285).