Cleveland Museum of Art

Pair of Candle Stands (torchères)

Thomas ChippendaleLinkedCulture matchlcp-437bd2dc7379

Date: c. 1773
Medium: Gilt-wood, gesso
Culture: England
Department: Decorative Art and Design
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 296871

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

This pair of gilded candle stands was made by Thomas Chippendale, the most renowned cabinetmaker in eighteenth-century London, for the grand drawing room of Brocket Hall, a large country house in Hertfordshire, England. With finely carved acanthus leaves, swags, fluting, and oval masks depicting the Roman goddess Diana, these candle stands exhibit Chippendale’s masterful understanding of neoclassical proportion, scale, and ornament. His landmark book of furniture designs, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (first published in 1754), was highly admired as a source of inspiration by cabinetmakers and architects around England as well as in Europe and America. Candle stands usually held silver or crystal candelabra that were lit for evening entertainment.

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Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line: John L. Severance Fund
Provenance: probably 1773-1923: Sir Peniston Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne [1748-1819], commissioned from the maker, then by descent to Admiral of the Fleet Lord Walter Talbot Kerr [1839-1927]. | ?–1923: Admiral of the Fleet Lord Walter Talbot Kerr [1839-1927] | 1923–1934: (Messrs. Foster, house sale at Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, March 9, 1923, no. 364, sold to Sir Charles Nall-Cain, 1st Lord Brocket [1866-1934] | 1923–1934: Sir Charles Nall-Cain, 1st Lord Brocket [1866-1934], then by descent to the Lord Brocket Will Trust | 1934–?: Lord Brocket Will Trust | 1995: (Christie's, London, November 16, 1995, lot 357, sold to Mr. S. Jon Gerstenfeld, Washington, DC) | 1995–?: S. Jon Gerstenfeld, Washington, DC | 2018: (Christie's, London, July 5, 2018, no. 9, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) | 2018–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH