Chandelier

Brass
78 in (198.2 cm) x 33 1/4 in (84.5 cm), maximum diameter
English, circa 1870

PROVENANCE:
Sir Tatton Sykes  (1826-1913); thence by descent; with H. Blairman & Sons Ltd, 1995; private collection, New York; private collection, London.

From 1865 Sir Tatton Sykes employed the architect  George Edmund Street on his Yorkshire estates and it is likely that this chandelier came out of one of Street's buildings.

Chandeliers composed of rings linked by chains appear to have been popular from the 1840s onwards. Pugin illustrated an example in An Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture in England (London, 1843), pl. X.  Similarly conceived chandeliers were also shown in the Mediaeval Court at the London Great Exhibition, 1851.  Perhaps the closest parallel to the present chandelier is one intended for St Mary’s, Studley Royal, Yorkshire, which was built by Williiam Burges (1827-81), 1870-78.  Its appearance is recorded in R.P. Pullan, The Architectural Designs of William Burges, A.R.A. (London, 1883), pl. 50.

Firms, including Cox & Sons and Hart, Son, Peard & Co., both in London, and John Hardman & Son of Birmingham, all manufactured chandeliers of this general form.