ART DECO CHANDELIER, 1925

A monumental Art Deco chandelier by Sabino, Paris, its dramatic silvered wrought-iron frame built up from angular chevron and stepped "skyscraper" motifs rising from an octagonal ceiling cap to a faceted lantern-form base. Eight scrolling iron arms radiate outward from the frame, each terminating in a deeply relief-molded frosted glass shade cast with a bold Art Deco pattern of stylized swags, ovals and geometric banding — with a further glass finial suspended at the base of the fixture. The combination of hand-worked, hammered iron and crisp pressed glass is the hallmark of Sabino's most ambitious lighting of the period, in which the metal armature is as sculptural and considered as the glass it carries.
This model is directly documented: the chandelier corresponds to model 4702 (height 0.67 m, diameter 0.68 m) illustrated in the Sabino Paris trade catalogue reproduced in Albrecht Bangert's reference work on Art Deco lighting — shown there among a group of Sabino "lustres" combining wrought-metal frames with clusters of frosted glass shades, an important primary-source confirmation of both maker and model.
A rare and fully documented example of Sabino's large-scale wrought-iron and glass lighting, suited as a dramatic centerpiece for an entry, stair hall, or grand living or dining space.

Marius-Ernest Sabino (1878–1961) was one of the defining glass artists of French Art Deco, working alongside René Lalique as part of the generation of designers who carried French decorative glass from Art Nouveau naturalism into Art Deco's geometric idiom. Born in Acireale, Sicily, he moved to France as a young child, trained in woodcarving in his sculptor father's tradition, and studied at both the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
Drawn early to the possibilities electric lighting opened for glass design, Sabino founded his own workshop after the First World War, initially producing wood and bronze fixtures before turning decisively to pressed and molded glass. His technique of deeply relief-molded glass — in which pattern and light diffusion were generated by the material itself rather than by applied decoration — brought him acclaim at the pivotal 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, the exhibition that gave Art Deco its name. In his large-scale lighting, exemplified by the present chandelier, Sabino paired this glasswork with substantial hand-wrought iron and bronze armatures, elevating the metalwork to an equal, sculptural partner to the glass rather than mere support structure.
Sabino received major commissions for the great transatlantic ocean liners of the era, 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, along with work for hotels, restaurants and private clients as prominent as the Shah of Persia. He was awarded the Legion of Honor for his contributions to French art and industry. Though production slowed during the Second World War and Sabino retired due to illness afterward, his firm continued producing his designs from the original molds until 1975. His work is held today in major museum collections, including the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and remains among the most sought-after lighting of the Art Deco period.