Today, many collectors avidly seek beautiful antique chandeliers. One subcategory of these items, French antique chandeliers, sometimes command lucrative prices at auctions. While rare, these items still possess the power to transform rooms with their beauty.
About Chandeliers
Over the course of time, artists have developed many different types of light fixtures. During the centuries before the invention of the electric bulb, most civilizations relied upon fire as a light source at night. People in some parts of Europe came to depend upon candles to supply illumination after dusk. Although many households eventually embraced oil burning lamps, candles made from wicks enclosed within beeswax or animal fat also served as a popular way to supply light in residential interiors after sundown.
A candelabrum sometimes functioned as the equivalent of a modern indoor table lamp during the era before residential electrification. Shaped like a branching candlestick, this device contained settings to secure multiple candlesticks. (If one burned out, the remaining sticks still provided some level of light in the room.) It likely served as the inspiration for the earliest chandeliers, light fixtures holding multiple candles.
Suspending chandeliers from ceilings furnished improved illumination in hallways and large rooms. The Latin and French word “candela” referred to a candelabrum, the source of the word “chandelier”.
Reflecting Light
Chandeliers became popular in diverse locations around the world, including India, Iraq, Turkey, and Spain. During the 1600s, craftsman discovered the use of attached rock crystals (particularly quartz crystals) helped augment light produced by candles. The crystals sometimes served as prisms to refract light, creating brilliant ornate illuminated displays. These elegant rock crystal light fixtures assumed decorative importance in palaces and upscale homes in France during the reign of King Louis XIV(1643–1715), for example.
Artisans would eventually develop many different styles of antique crystal chandeliers. The French Baroque style popularized during the reign of Louis XIV became very influential. These fixtures typically used metal frameworks shaped like buckets or vases to support upright white candles, and extensive attached rock crystal decorations to capture the light. Subsequently, an even more elaborate style including quartz beads and dangling pendants known as the “Maria-Antoinetta” also gained popularity in France and many other places.
French Antique Chandeliers Continue to Evolve
Over the course of several hundred years, a variety of different chandelier styles attained popularity. During the 1700s, designers sometimes carved chandelier frames and then gilded them to produce a variety of decorative designs imitating more expensive gold, silver, or brass structures. Rococo designs using elaborate curved frameworks and features embellished with depictions of garlands, cherubs, and other decorations gained popularity during the reign of King Louis XV.
Following the French Revolution, French chandeliers became considerably less ornate. A “Neoclassical” period swept through France. Simpler designs reflecting ancient Greek and Roman influences fell into vogue for several decades. Carvings of flames and bees appeared in chandelier frameworks to recognize the governmental and military changes in society. Many pieces from the period of the Napoleonic Wars contained fewer rock crystals and beads.
Mass Production Impacts Chandeliers
By the mid-1800s, an important technological change occurred. Craftsmen began using leaded glass in place of rock crystals in many chandeliers. While glass did not refract light as well as quartz, this component proved considerably less expensive to manufacture in high volumes. The Industrial Revolution witnessed the large scale production of ornate lighting fixtures in France.
Today, collectors frequently search for original French chandeliers dating from previous centuries. Antique chandeliers have sometimes commanded lucrative prices at auction houses. (One German chandelier dating from 1736 commanded a price of nearly 6 million Euros at Christie’s in 2011.) Today, even many contemporary rock crystal chandeliers crafted in earlier styles command significant prices.
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Originally published at www.legacyantiques.com on January 15, 2019.
