FINE MOULDED CANDLESTICKS; SEE ALSO [ILLUSTRATION], PAGE 60
Glass candlesticks of Georgian date follow much the same order as the contemporary wine glasses, in the feet, pontil-marks, and stems. The earliest have baluster stems about 9 inches high, and round feet between 6 and 7 inches in diameter; the feet are domed or high instep, and the pontil-mark is a lump. The dome foot occurs with the air-spiral stems, later, and even with the cut stems, later still; in these last, as in the moulded and in the cut and engraved examples, the pontil-mark does not show. Fine candlesticks ornamented by purfling were made (see [illustration], page 60). Glass taper stands are found.
2. LUSTRES
The degenerate form of lustre that was found on every parlour mantelpiece about the year 1860 is the best-known form, and many of these coloured glass objects, belling out at the top and bottom, with hanging prisms fantastically cut, are still extant; but as yet they are little collected. The name “lustres,” however, may be used to include the standing girandoles and the hanging chandeliers adorned with festoons of diamond-like cut prisms, and these are much sought after; many collectors acquire loose prisms, long or diamond-shaped, whenever they can, and have them re-strung, to be added to new glass chandeliers.
The earliest form of the girandole, or standing lustre, had a glass standard and glass arms; the top of the standard was a candlestick nozzle; the glass standard and arms and the dependent prisms reflected the candlelight brilliantly. Two of these were in use at Mount Vernon when George Washington was President of the United States; in the Boston News Letter for 1719, “Fine Glass Lamps and Lanthorns” were advertised. Later, French influence brought in the ormolu and brass standards, some two feet high with ormolu arms and glass hangers. A complete set of girandoles, for a mantelpiece or console-stand, consisted of three, with ormolu bases (sometimes representing a human figure), standards, and arms; the central one triply or quintuply a candlestick, the side ones singly so.
In the fine tall lustres made in pairs at Cork about 1820 all was glass, except the metal clips inserted in the nozzles to hold the candles better. Until lustres lost their meaning and became mere mantel ornaments the candlestick part of them was a usual feature.
3. LAMPS
Glass standard lamps, some with round bases, some with square bases, the stems cut or balustered, may be found; in some cases the standard is short and supports a blown-glass lampshade; in other cases a blown-glass bulb is part of the tall standard.
A rare and interesting form of lamp, one of the oldest, has a bulb with an opening in the top, the edges of the opening rounded off, and a corrugated stand; these are small, and were used for nightlights. I own three, one of them with a handle, and a dish beneath it, evidently used for carrying the light from room to room (see [illustration], page 27); such as these would, perhaps, be the old “mortars,” or night-light holders, for a cake of wax and a wick.