Candlesticks or candleholders are among the most popular objects in the interior. Candles provide light, ambiance and romance. To dine and relax by candlelight.... Candlesticks look magnificent on the mantelpiece. Candlesticks are attractive in the window, on the window-sill. Candlesticks are functional and, during dinner, also attractive on the dining table or on another piece of furniture. Sconces playfully illuminate a passage and wall. Tea-light holders are practical and sweet-looking. Glass candlesticks, (silver) tin candlesticks, bronze candlesticks, gold coloured candlesticks, silver candlesticks, a sculpture as a candlestick, a matching pair of candlesticks. The Antique Style Webstore has various models on offer online, to illuminate the house or to give as a present!
Mediaeval candlesticks, primarily made to be used on church altars, had three branches and a pin to hold the candle. Candleholders made an entrance only in the 15th century. Candlesticks were usually made in pairs. Around 1680, a candlestick usually had the shape of a classical pillar and an octagonal base. In the 1690's, candlesticks were cast of massive silver for the first time. A shaft shaped like a vase with spherical rings on a square, a round or a triangular base. These candlesticks had no other adornments. Only during the Baroque and Rococo periods, shell and floral decorations and also candlesticks in the shape of human figures, holding the socket over their heads, came into being.
Candelabra are candlesticks with branches for several candles. These candlesticks were made from 1660 onwards and enjoyed an increasing popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries. The shaft of the candlestick has two, three of more graceful (curved) branches. These candlesticks or candelabra with two branches, three branches or even more branches are fashioned in the same historical artistic style as the single candlestick. At the end of the 18th century, dinner was served in the evenings and therefore extra lighting was required. The candlesticks that were used on the table had at least three branches. In the middle of the 19th century, candelabra became smaller in size. The introduction of gaslight and the oil lamp were the cause that candlesticks henceforth played a merely decorative role in the interior.
A candlestick given as a present at a wedding or an anniversary, is a well-chosen present. A beautiful candlestick lasts a lifetime!
