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拍品专文
Cut-glass eight-light chandeliers like the present example developed in the early 18th century initially from the short candle branches made for pier mirrors. This chandelier evolved from models dating from the second quarter of the 18th century which featured plain arms, illustrated in Martin Mortimer, The English Glass Chandelier, Woodbridge, 2000, plates 15-18. However by 1745 glass-cutters had mastered the ability to cut the arms as well as the central balusters, giving rise to chandeliers of the type offered here, and another now in Independence Hall, Philadelphia (ibid. p.71, pl.22). The latter are additionally characterised by the presence of a large sphere positioned below the branches, a feature which is thought to derive from the classic Flemish brass chandelier. That said, the central elements were simply threaded onto a metal rod and so any combination of elements is possible. The branches in this period slotted into square sockets topped with a turned circular plate as in the present lot.
Mortimer suggests that most of the requirements for construction including wheel-cutting, or the less expensive diamond-moulded or reticulated stem pieces were in the sphere of a plate-glass maker - although elements such as metalwork would have been bought in. As the skill and ingenuity of the glass worker increased so larger branches could be made, as seen on a chandelier formerly at Thornham Hall, Suffolk, now at Winterthur Museum, Delaware, and another at Chatsworth, Derbyshire.
Mortimer suggests that most of the requirements for construction including wheel-cutting, or the less expensive diamond-moulded or reticulated stem pieces were in the sphere of a plate-glass maker - although elements such as metalwork would have been bought in. As the skill and ingenuity of the glass worker increased so larger branches could be made, as seen on a chandelier formerly at Thornham Hall, Suffolk, now at Winterthur Museum, Delaware, and another at Chatsworth, Derbyshire.