Lot 10
PAIR OF SILVERED-METAL EIGHT-BRANCH CHANDELIERS
ELKINGTON & CO., CIRCA 1900
The Forbes Collection at Old Battersea House
Auction: 1 November 2011 at 11:00 GMT
Description
in the Louis XV style, each with baluster shaft with triple putti mounts and issuing eight scroll branches with circular drip-pans, externally wired for electricity, hung as a single chandelier divided by chain suspension, 59cm high; also a SIMILAR PAIR OF SILVERED-METAL TWIN-BRANCH WALL LIGHTS, the baluster back-plates with cherubim mask mounts, issuing two scroll branches with foliate circular drip-pans, internally wired for electricity, 30cm high (4)
Footnote
Literature: Peyton Skipwith, "A Tale of Two Cities," THE CONNOISSEUR, December 1981, reproduced.
Note:
These models are cast after a design by William Kent for Knole House, Kent. George Richards Elkington and Henry Elkington were the originators of silver-plating and by the 1830's they had patented the processes. The Directory of Gold and Silversmiths states that "Elkington Electroplate was soon accepted with the result that the firm allowed a number of manufacturers to use the technique under licence." In 1868, Queen Victoria permitted much of the royal plate to be copied by Elkington’s and after that a convention was entered into by noble families in Britain and Europe whereby they agreed to allow the company to copy objects in their possession.