From the rafters or ceiling in plainer homes hung sometimes a candle beam, a rude chandelier, made of two pieces of metal crossed or a circle of metal, with sockets for candles fixed upon them.
The chandelier in Illustration [327] is for candles, and is without doubt the finest one of its period in this country. It is in the Pringle house in Charleston, South Carolina, and it was probably placed in the house when it was built in 1760, at which time it was furnished with great elegance. It is amazing that so frail a thing as this glass chandelier with all of its shades should have survived the Civil War, and still more, the earthquake which laid low a large part of the city, but not one shade has been shaken down. There are twenty-four branches to the chandelier, twelve in each row, and a large glass shade for each candle, to protect the flame from the draughts. The long chains hang from a bell of glass, from which fall glass drops, and from a large bowl spring the branches with their tall shades, and between them are glass chains with drops. The glass chains are very light and the chandelier is not loaded with heavy drops. It is impossible to imagine anything more light and graceful in effect.
Illus. 328.—Embroidered
Screen, 1780.
“Skreans” are mentioned in very early inventories, and indeed they must have been a necessity, to protect the face from the intense heat of the large open fire. They afforded then, as now, an opportunity for the display of feminine handiwork. The dainty little fire-screen in Illustration [328] was made about 1780, and is owned by Mrs. Johnson-Hudson of Stratford, Connecticut. The frame and stand are of mahogany, and the spreading legs are unusually slender and graceful. The embroidered screen was wrought by the daughters of Dr. William Samuel Johnson, the first president of Columbia University. The same young girls embroidered the top of the card-table in Illustration [199], and the work is done with the same patient industry and skill. The vase which is copied in the embroidery is of Delft, and is still owned in the family.
A very curious and interesting piece of work is shown in Illustration [329]. It forms the back of a sconce owned by Francis H. Bigelow, Esq., and in his book “Historic Silver of the Colonies,” Mr. Bigelow describes the candle bracket, made in 1720 by Knight Leverett, which fits into the socket upon the frame. Benjamin Burt, the silversmith, in his will left to a niece “a sconce of quill work wrought by her aunt.” In 1755 a Mrs. Hiller advertised to teach “Wax work, Transparent and Filligree, Quill work and Feather work.” “Quill work” is made of paper of various colors, gilt upon one side, rolled tightly, like paper tapers. Some were pulled out into points, others made into leaf and petal-shaped pieces, and when finished they were coated with some waxy substance, and sprinkled with tiny bits of glass, all in gay colors, and when the candles were lighted the quill work glistened and sparkled.
The quill work in this sconce is made into an elaborate design of a vase with flowers, and it is set into a very deep frame, and covered tightly with glass, which accounts for its perfect preservation. The top ornament to the frame is cut in the manner of looking glass frames of the period.
