Refracted Glory: The Story of the Chandelier
From the glow of a candle to choreographed, colorful sequences, the chandelier has cast its light across the centuries, reflecting the technology of its time
It was the night the chandelier came in from the cold. In a derelict warehouse, the “designerati” who had gathered for the trend-setting Milan furniture fair gazed in wonderment at a series of show-stopping lighting that glittered in the darkness. One chandelier was made entirely of rose-pink crystals and shaped like a haute couture ballgown. Another, made of crystal prisms, resembled a glistening block of ice. Most evocative was Blossom, a chandelier in the form of a flowering cherry-tree branch, its Dutch designer Tord Boontje imbuing cold, hard crystal with unexpected delicacy and romance.
The event, in 2002, was the launch of Crystal Palace, a design project conceived by crystal-maker Swarovski to transform the chandelier from a tired and dated stalwart of interior design into something chic and modern. “At that time the classical chandelier, and crystal in particular, were not taken seriously by the contemporary design set,” says Ilse Crawford, the curator of Crystal Palace, and also interior designer behind cool spaces such as Soho House in London and New York. “So initially, when I approached some well-known designers, most of them refused.”
Chandeliers bring a room to life. They add atmosphere and feeling, and affect the way we experience space.
In the years since, however, many of the world’s biggest design names, including architect Zaha Hadid, Ron Arad, and Karim Rashid, have created chandeliers for the project. “And manufacturers of chandeliers started to be interested in working with contemporary design rather than sticking to pastiche traditions,” says Crawford. The result of this new approach has been some extraordinary creations.
Light sock, created for Swarovski by New York-based architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, is a mesh bag filled with crystals. Also, for Swarovski is Vincent Van Duysen’s Cascade, in which a series of LED-lit crystal strings fall from the ceiling, resembling a torrent of water. Architect Daniel Libeskind’s eL Chandelier is a sharp-edged, stainless-steel tumbling shape lit with LEDs that incorporate algorithms representing the history of light over 14 billion years, the age of the universe. At the 2014 Milan furniture fair, Libeskind unveiled the Ice Chandelier – a light made of hand-blown glass “cells” for Czech brand Lasvit. Reflective Flow, by designer Beau McClellan, holds the record for being the world’s largest chandelier. Suspended from a glass atrium between two office complexes in Qatar, it snakes between the buildings, its 126 feet lit by more than 2,300 hand-ground optical crystals and 55,000 LEDs.
Chandeliers have undoubtedly undergone a radical metamorphosis. The earliest types, in the 14th century, were simple wooden crosses with spikes for fixing candles (“chandelier” comes from the French word chandelle, meaning “candle”), the entire edifice then raised up by a rope or chain, pulley-style. This allowed light to be shed over a wide area, and chandeliers were initially used in large buildings such as churches, abbeys, and monasteries. Over time, chandeliers made their way into the homes of the ruling classes where they became a symbol of wealth and status. With a more sophisticated ring or crown shape, called a corona, and bearing many more candles, they allowed the gentry to defy the darkness of the night more effectively than with wall sconces or a simple fire in a hearth.
Over the next two centuries, better housing that allowed for the safe burning of candles saw the chandelier move into the homes of the lower-middle classes. Now with arms to hold the candles, they were made of wood, but also wrought iron and tin sheet. In wealthier homes, chandeliers were more finely crafted and made from gilded wood, known as ormolu, as well as brass for a warmer and richer glow. In palaces, precious metals were used – the silver Royal Hanover chandelier commissioned by King George II sold at auction at Christie’s for £5,753,250 in 2011.
THE CRYSTAL AGE
In the US, the chandelier was found in public buildings as well as colonial-style and plantation homes from the 1700s, the chandeliers typified by the now much-copied “S” curved arms with a central-hanging oversized ball shape. It was the use of lead glass, or crystal, from around 1720 that transformed the chandelier into a highly decorative piece. Throughout the grand houses and palaces of Europe and Russia, ornate chandeliers dripping with crystals and adorned with intricate details were hung as statements of power and wealth.
In France, Louis XIV commissioned 43 chandeliers, holding a total of 1,000 candles, for the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles. Impressed by the chandeliers at the court of Louis XV, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria (Marie Antoinette’s mother) commissioned her own; her eponymous style of chandelier features two or more intricate tiers of beads and drops, usually on a silver- or gold-tinted structure.
In the mid-19th century, many candle chandeliers converted to gas; hollow glass or metal tubes were used to form the arms, allowing the gas to reach the “candles”. A few decades later, in 1883, the Austrian crystal manufacturer J&L Lobmeyr worked with Thomas Edison to create the first electric crystal chandelier for Vienna’s Imperial Palace, and towards the end of that century, electric chandeliers became standard, electricity allowing for even more extravagant designs. The Crystal Staircase Chandelier that was a gift from Queen Victoria to the Ottoman Empire, and can be found in the Ceremonial Hall of the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, has 750 lamps and hundreds of Bohemian crystals. It remains one of the largest chandeliers in the world.
Antique chandeliers, and especially those “signed” by the prestige designers of the time, can fetch high prices at auction – an 18th-century Russian imperial chandelier sold at Christie’s for €601,000 ($829,380) in 2010. Distinguishing features include the color of the crystal, the droplet shape, and also the bobèche, the cup-like piece that was originally used to catch wax.
MATERIAL GAINS
Today’s chandeliers, however, are likely to be assessed by different criteria. In Ammo, a restaurant housed in a former British army ammunition compound in Hong Kong, Joyce Wang, one of the island’s new generation of designers, created three spiral staircase-shaped chandeliers using copper piping. “The chandelier today is more open to interpretation, it’s not just to showcase wealth or to light up a room,” says Wang. “Now it is more a sculpture or a piece of art to convey the essence of a place, and they’re made from new materials and in new shapes. I liked the idea of taking a mundane material that’s usually hidden and using it to make a luxurious chandelier,” she says.
Wang features leather in her work as well, and it’s a material that Swarovski also uses in one of its most popular chandeliers, Crystal Empire, which reverses the traditional form with crystal as the structure and leather for the decorative strands. While new materials are important – a lot of the crystal used today is lead-free – the groundbreaking technological innovation has been the development of LEDs. “They have provided light sources in smaller sizes as well as in a variety of shape configurations, which differ from conventional light bulbs,” says Ron Rodgers of Swarovski Lighting. Chandeliers, whether traditional or modern, are now very much a design statement. “They bring a room to life,” says Crawford. “Chandeliers add atmosphere and feeling, and affect the way we experience space. Architecture is still poorly served in terms of big light fixtures, and a well-conceived chandelier can create a lot of impact.”
SHOW-STOPPING LIGHTING
It’s said that the first ovation heard at the new Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center, New York, was an opening night in 1966 when the audience saw the stunning Sputnik chandeliers, made with 49,000 crystals by J&L Lobmyer, raised towards the ceiling. More recently, Beverly Hills-based Gemini Cut Glass designed and installed the chandeliers in the flagship Ralph Lauren store on Madison Avenue, New York. “We find we’re doing more retail stores,” says Eric Zelwian, president of the company whose clients also include Donald Trump and Cartier. “Chandeliers make a statement – you see one, and you want to walk in to a place.”
Chandeliers provide a specific light quality that makes the vibe in a room feel sexier.
A chandelier also accentuates a room’s strong points. “It highlights architectural details and the height of a ceiling by adding focused light to the space,” says Kelly Wearstler, the Los Angeles-based designer known for maximalist chic and an A-list clientele. “Chandeliers are sexy too. They provide a specific light quality that makes the vibe in a room feel sexier. Everyone looks good in great lighting.”
Size and scale are everything, though. “Rather than making a huge statement, which may risk ‘over-shadowing’ the rest of the interiors, chandeliers should feel as though they are part of the architecture of a space, at ease within the environment of the room,” says Simon Rawlings, creative director at David Collins Studio in London, leading architects and designers of luxury interiors.
Crawford, too, counsels caution. “Use a chandelier carefully – too much can look kitsch very easily,” she says. The idea of “less is more” is seen in the newest chandelier to grace the Palace of Versailles. Designed by the Bouroullec Brothers, who won a competition to design a chandelier to hang above the vast neo-classical Gabriel staircase, it resembles a string of pearls hanging from the ceiling. While supremely complex to make, it looks coolly pared-back- and at the same time, very beautiful.
