Art Deco Chandelier

A magnificent Art Deco chandelier by Ernest (Marius-Ernest) Sabino, France, circa 1930, its six scalloped, frosted molded-glass "wing" panels radiating from a central inverted-heart glass finial, each cast in bold relief with a stylized Art Deco floral motif. The glass is suspended from a pierced, silvered cast-metal frame whose scrolling arms terminate in cornucopia-form mounts dense with cast fruit and foliate detail — a striking counterpoint to the crisp geometry of Sabino's signature pressed glass. The fixture hangs from a fan-form ceiling cap on its original chain, and the underside is finished with a matching frosted glass drop echoing the pattern of the wings above.
Sabino's molded and pressed glass, developed through the 1920s and '30s, is celebrated precisely for fixtures of this kind, where the glass carries the design rather than serving as mere shade material — deeply relief-molded panels that catch and diffuse light with a soft, frosted glow. This example is signed to the glass "Sabino Paris 4604 C déposé," confirming both maker and model, and the piece retains its original cast-metal armature and cornucopia mounts in excellent, complete condition.
A rare and complete example of French Art Deco lighting at its most sculptural, suitable as a striking focal point in an entry, dining room, or stair hall.
Signature: Sabino Paris 4604 C déposé.

Marius-Ernest Sabino (1878–1961) was one of the defining glass artists of the French Art Deco era, working alongside René Lalique as part of the generation of designers who carried French decorative glass from the naturalism of Art Nouveau into the geometric clarity of Art Deco. Born in Acireale, Sicily, he moved to France with his family as a young child. Following his father, a sculptor working chiefly in wood, Sabino trained in woodcarving before attending both the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
Fascinated early on by the possibilities that electric lighting opened up for glass design, Sabino founded his own workshop after the First World War, initially producing traditional wood and bronze fixtures before shifting decisively to pressed and molded glass. He went on to design vases, figural sculpture, decorative panels, and — above all — lighting, developing a technique of deeply relief-molded glass in which the material itself, rather than applied ornament, generated the pattern and diffused the light. His work was singled out for its originality and craftsmanship at the pivotal 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, the fair that gave Art Deco its name.
Sabino received major commissions for the great ocean liners of the period, including lighting for the SS Île de France in 1927 and an illuminated glass fountain column for the Grand Salon of the SS Normandie in 1935, alongside work for hotels, restaurants, and private clients as prestigious as the Shah of Persia. He was awarded France's Legion of Honor for his contributions to French art and industry. Production slowed during the Second World War and Sabino retired due to illness after the war, but the firm continued to produce his designs from the original molds until 1975. Today, his glass — chandeliers, wall lights, vases, and figures — is held in major museum collections, including the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and remains among the most recognizable and collected glass of the Art Deco perio