Pair of candlesticks
N.H. (?)
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
In the era before gas lighting and electricity, candles played a principal role in illuminating the domestic interior. The number of candles lit was an indication of the wealth and status of the owner: beeswax candles burned clean, had a pleasant smell, but were quite expensive compared to those made of tallow. In late seventeenth-century France, a change in dining habits had a significant effect on the production of silver candlesticks. Entertainment was increasingly orientated towards the evening; the use of domestic space changed and as a result, elegant lighting became an important part of the interior decoration. This pair of candlesticks illustrates the predilection for small-scale ornament inspired by the designs of Jean Bérain (1640–1711). Bérain’s numerous ornamental prints provided models for the decoration of silver, ceramics, furniture and wall paneling: the so-called Bérainesque style dominated the designs of these media during the years 1680 through the 1720s. Daughter of one of the founders of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company, Catherine D. Wentworth (1865–1948) was an art student and painter who lived in France for thirty years. She became one of the most important American collectors of eighteenth-century French silver and on her death in 1948 bequeathed part of her significant collection of silver, gold boxes, French furniture, and textiles to the Metropolitan Museum. The collection is particularly strong in domestic silver, as seen in this pair of Parisian candlesticks made in 1714–15.
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.