CIRCA 1795

With its delicate ormolu construction hung with crystal and blue glass, this chandelier relates to the oeuvre of the St. Petersburg chandelier-maker Johann Adam Fischer and his contemporaries, whose chandeliers epitomise the fashion for sumptuous and glittering furnishings at the Imperial Court during the reigns of Catherine the Great, Paul I and Alexander I. Fischer's fame spread beyond St. Petersburg and his chandeliers were also acquired by patrons in Moscow, including Count Sheremetiev who in 1798 used one of Fischer's most unusual pieces at Ostankino Palace (I. Sychev,The Russian Chandeliers, St. Petersburg, 2003, p. 65, fig. 321). Fischer was one of several German chandelier-makers who came to St. Petersburg in the late 18th Century. They introduced a pattern of chandelier now known as 'Catherine', which existed in two basic forms: chandeliers with a load-bearing central shaft with tiers of rings with branches and so-called basket-chandeliers with cascades of drops and central coloured glass elements (ibid, p. 57).