Object Description
This 19th Century French chandelier is designed in the Empire style and wrought from gilt bronze and strings of cut glass. The chandelier features a lower dome-shaped body below an overarching tent-shaped canopy. The top of this canopy, which is defined by long strings of glass droplets, is surmounted by a circular gilt bronze band cast with palmette form motifs. The bottom of the canopy meets the primary circular gilt bronze band of the chandelier, this band supporting nine pairs of lights. From this primary band falls the dome body of the chandelier, also formed from strings of cut glass.
The chandelier is beautifully crafted: the glass droplets are brilliantly faceted and the gilt bronze throughout is intricately formed with classical forms. The branches that support the lights are ornately scrolled, the light they emit being charming reflected by and refracted throughout the hundreds of glass droplets.