Cleveland Museum of Art

Candle Stand (torchère) (2 of 2)

Thomas Chippendale

Date

c. 1773

Medium

Gilt-wood, gesso

Culture

England, 18th century

Department

Decorative Art and Design

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This gilded candle stand 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, this candle stand exhibits 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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