Rock Crystal Chandelier from the so-called 'White Peller's House' [weiße Pellershaus] in Nuremberg

Rock Crystal Chandelier from the so-called 'White Peller's House' [weiße Pellershaus] in Nuremberg

Johann Georg Puschner

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for a rock crystal chandelier, produced in Italy (Milan). According to the inscription, added both in German and Latin, the chandelier supports 36 candles and is 9 1/2 Rhinish feet high while its circumference measures 21 Rhinish feet. The chandelier hung in the house chapel of the Peller family in Nuremberg. It was originally commisioned in Italy (ca. 1694) as a gift for the princely house of Thurn and Taxis. The merchant family Peller acted as an intermediate in this commission and when no agreement was reached over the final price of the chandelier they kept it in their house. Eventually they sold it to the Prussian King who had it restored and hung in the 'Rittersaal' in Berlin.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rock Crystal Chandelier from the so-called 'White Peller's House' [weiße Pellershaus] in NurembergRock Crystal Chandelier from the so-called 'White Peller's House' [weiße Pellershaus] in NurembergRock Crystal Chandelier from the so-called 'White Peller's House' [weiße Pellershaus] in NurembergRock Crystal Chandelier from the so-called 'White Peller's House' [weiße Pellershaus] in NurembergRock Crystal Chandelier from the so-called 'White Peller's House' [weiße Pellershaus] in Nuremberg

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.