THE CANDLESTICK
The seventeenth-century candlestick--Early examples--The contemporary
potter--Charles II examples--The eighteenth century--Queen
Anne and early Georgian types--Provincial makers--The classic
style--The Sheffield candlestick.
Ecclesiastical candlesticks have been in use from earliest times. The
pricket form, that is with the spike for sticking the candle on, may
be seen in use to-day. This form has survived in spite of its obvious
inconvenience. It might have been of use for candles of great size, but
even then long candles were apt to turn over if not kept upright by the
attendant priests. The pricket or spike form may be at once dismissed,
although older, as being outside the field of the domestic candlestick.
Whatever may have been the receptacle for candles in common domestic
use in Elizabethan days, it is now lost. The candlestick has not been
so fortunate as the spoon to escape the melting-pot. Even early Stuart
examples are rare. Specimens of candlesticks of the first half of the
seventeenth century are so rare as to be beyond the average collector’s
pocket.
We are enabled to produce an early example of the time of Charles I,
bearing the London hall-marks for the year 1637. This is the very
year that Hampden refused to pay ship-money as taxes. Under cold
and unimpassioned examination, it would appear that these patriots
stood really on technicalities. The country gentleman, the man of
Buckinghamshire environed by cornlands, refused to pay ship-money; that
is, money to be devoted to safeguarding our coasts. The men of Devon,
the men of the Kentish coasts and the Essex estuaries, the Lincolnshire
ports, the Yorkshire seaboard, the city of Bristol, and estuary of the
Thames guarding London, these were the fit and proper persons to pay
for safeguarding the shores; the country gentleman whose thoughts could
not soar above the soil, straightway became a patriot because he would
not co-operate with the rest of his country in paying taxes for common
defence. The Dutch could sweep the Channel and Van Tromp could carry a
broom in derision at his masthead, but many of the country gentlemen of
the Puritan days talked of turnips, and to resist payment of ship-money
was deemed patriotic.
It will be seen that the example illustrated is simple in form. It
is not so delicate as the brass candlestick of a slightly later day
(illustrated p. 129). The bottom is like an inverted wine cup, and the
straight pillar holds the candle. The marks on this are on the rim of
the bottom, upside down, which has led some persons to suppose that the
base might be used as a wine cup, which is absurd.
[Illustration: CHARLES II CANDLESTICKS. LONDON, 1673.
Height 11 in.
(_By courtesy of Messrs. Crichton Brothers._)]
This type is the plainest possible, and suggests that little of any
value preceded it. It leaves one with queer imaginings as to what the
Tudor form may have been like. But one must not be too exacting. A
glance at table manners gives modern precisians a shock. There was a
common dish, at which all helped themselves. The habit of putting the
hands into this dish to seize bits of meat does not seem to have been
regarded as objectionable. This was in the fifteenth century. There
were no soup plates till about the year 1600. Nor was there any large
spoon for serving from the tureen till about a hundred years later,
that is about 1700.
The Lambeth delft candlestick, with coat of arms, dated 1648, is more
symmetrical than the example of the silversmith. It has the platform
for the grease, similar to later examples in the next reign made of
gun-metal, and very heavy.
Charles II Examples
There was an extraordinary demand for silver plate in the reign of
Charles II. This is indicated in the diaries of Pepys and of Evelyn. We
illustrate a pair of especial beauty and delicacy (p. 227).
These candlesticks were sold at Christie’s in 1908 for £1,420. They
are 11 inches in height, and they bear the London hall-mark for 1673.
The barrel is short, and fluted to represent a cluster of eight small
columns. The barrel is connected with a cast and vase-shaped stem,
ornamented with four lobes and four acanthus leaves. The platform has
voluting shells, and the base is composed of four escalop shells.
There is a delicacy about these candlesticks which is Italianate in
character. From the barrel to the base the lines are graceful and
subtle. There is nothing like them in English silver. They suggest the
fanciful design of the best Japanese art, centuries before that art had
penetrated Europe. Remarkable in many respects, it is representative of
the joyousness and vivacity of the Restoration; they have no forbears
and no successors. They are unique.
The fluted column was a form which appealed to the Carolean maker.
In square bases with platforms inverted, this type departs from
the fanciful curves of the pair illustrated. The straight line is
predominant in the base, the platform, and the socket. Sometimes the
baluster ornament of the seventeenth century is introduced in the stem.
Other late Stuart forms include the type with octagonal base, sometimes
plain hammered, and deep, from which the stem springs as from a pan,
and other forms with fluted column still on octagonal base, which in
the later days of the seventeenth century began to be more subdued
in character. By the middle of the seventeenth century the platform
disappears in silver candlesticks.
An interesting specimen is the Charles II snuffers and tray, of the
date of 1682. The snuffers are plain and flat and have the character of
the handles of the porringer, of the date 1669 (illustrated p. 231).
This flat openwork is peculiarly English, and belongs to the late
Stuart period. It is exhibited on the handle at the back of the tray.
The tray is as reticent as the silver of the Queen Anne period of
the early eighteenth century.
[Illustration: EARLY EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CANDLESTICKS.
QUEEN ANNE.
London, 1704.
QUEEN ANNE.
Exeter, 1706.
GEORGE I. 1721.
Maker, John Newton, London.
(_In possession of Messrs. Garrard._)]
[Illustration: CHARLES II SNUFFERS AND TRAY. 1682.
(With marks illustrated.)
(_At Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
The Eighteenth Century
The candlesticks of the eighteenth century vary considerably in
character. The fluted column dependent on the octagonal base, with
the relic of the old platform, is retained in a band with gadrooned
edge. The illustration (p. 231) shows various styles, in the opening
years of the eighteenth century. The baluster ornament, so common in
Stuart days, was adopted, and ran through the eighteenth century, until
classic influences swept it aside. This ornament, found as a terminal
in silver knobs of early date, now became elongated and assumed various
forms, with swelling and undulating form, sometimes with ornamented
edge, till it became absorbed with the classic form of upright fluting
and urn-like nozzle.
Candlesticks with removable nozzles were first introduced about 1758;
the tall Corinthian column form is noticeable at this period. The
urn sockets were in vogue from 1790 to 1798. It should be noted that
removable nozzles when found on seventeenth-century pieces may be
regarded as a later addition.
The provincial candlestick maker was not behind the London maker at
the end of the eighteenth century. For instance, when the Sheffield
Assay Office commenced operations in 1773 the classic style was at its
height. The Adam brothers had impressed their personality on furniture
and on architecture. Wedgwood had diverted Staffordshire into the paths
of Olympus. Here it should be said that “Sheffield plate,” so called,
is not Sheffield silver plate. It is difficult to explain. Plate is
the technical term we employ in regard to solid gold or silver. Plated
things which may be either gold plated or silver plated, are of baser
metal, more frequently copper, covered with a layer of gold or of
silver. Sheffield has won a renown for her antique silver plated ware.
But here we have Sheffield silver plate, that is Sheffield silver,
with the marks of the assay office. We give an example (illustrated
p. 235), twenty years after the granting of the charter to Sheffield.
Candlesticks, silver and silver-plated, were the specialties of
Sheffield, and very beautiful they are.
The ribbon festoon with knots suggests the Louis Quinze period. This
indicates the departure from the stern classic types; and the nozzle is
removable, a style which was then in common use.
As a study, the candlestick exhibits infinite variety. The eighteenth
century, from Queen Anne to the late George III period, offers many
forms. The Stuart candlestick is on another plane, and appeals to the
collector of rare examples.
The candle is something dead and gone; it stands on the threshold of
modernity like some dim ancestral ghost of former days. The electric
bulb is triumphant, paraffin is plebeian, and gas stretches back a
century when Westminster Bridge was first lit by gas in 1813. Nobody
has apostrophized a gas bracket or a paraffin lamp. But the candle is
both historic and poetical and the candlestick offers a pleasing field
to the collector.
[Illustration: EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CANDLESTICK.
Classic style. Made at Sheffield.
(_At Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
SALE PRICES
Prices vary to a considerable extent. As in the case of the salt
cellars, sets bring higher prices than the single examples. The
differences in prices are:--
EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Sets of four £80 to £100
Sets of two 40 to 70
LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Sets of four £20 to £40
Sets of two 7 to 20
Single specimens vary from £2 to £10, according to design.
In buying candelabra at so much per ounce, beginners should
carefully ascertain weight, as examples sold at 5s. per ounce have
realized over £200 owing to their massiveness.
VIII
THE TEAPOT
THE COFFEE-POT
THE TEA-KETTLE
THE TEA-CADDY