Louis XVI style marble, gilt bronze and jasperware chandelier

This four-light chandelier is designed in the so-called ‘Louis XVI style’—a refined Neoclassical style, which came into fashion in France during the reign of King Louis XVI (1774-1793).

The chandelier is comprised of a white marble body which is shaped like a classical covered urn. The lower section of the chandelier’s body is fluted and the fillets are filled with gilt bronze (ormolu) husk trails and grape vines. The base is encircled by a gilt bronze band of stiff-leaves and the tip is decorated with a drop finial cast as a cluster of grapes. The upper body of the chandelier is mounted with two oval jasperware plaques within beaded gilt bronze frames topped by ribbon bows.

Gilt bronze laurel leaf swags link the jasperware plaques to four gilt bronze fluted arms, which are decorated with stylised foliage and curling vines. The arms support wide drip-pans and candle-holders fitted with white candle tubes. The chandelier’s body is topped by a gilt bronze pineapple finial with a skirt of stiff-leaves.

The body of the chandelier is suspended from the ceiling by two gilt bronze supports which are cast as tasselled pieces of fabric. These connect the chandelier’s body to a shaped white marble top canopy. This canopy is decorated with a gilt bronze stiff-leaf and grape form drop-finial and with a crown of gilt bronze feathers.