Empire style patinated and gilt bronze six-light chandelier

This Second Empire period chandelier, designed in the Empire style so dominant in the early decades of the 19^th Century, is finely wrought from patinated and gilt bronze (ormolu). The body of the chandelier, cast from bronze and beautifully patinated, is formed in the manner of a Classical Roman oil lamp. The tazza shaped body is open at the top, the rim encompassed by an ormolu mount decorated with a frieze of palmettes, while the underside of the patinated bronze body is mounted with an ormolu pineapple finial, the finial springing from a spread of ormolu acanthus leaves.

The lamp-form body of the chandelier is mounted with six candle branches, each branch cast to imitate the shape of a lamp spout and ornamented in relief with Classical masks and palmette motifs. The body of the chandelier hangs from three chains, each chain joining the chandelier with lion-head shaped mounts. These chains feature alternating links, one a ring and the next a flat elongated disk decorated with foliate motifs. The chains meet at the ceiling mount, the mount set with a smaller ormolu pineapple finial.