Solid Brass Empire Style 10 Arm Chandelier – Chapman Manufacturing Co – 1998

$3,500

A monumental ten-light chandelier in the Empire manner by Chapman Manufacturing Company, the preeminent American maker of traditional brass lighting. Cast and finished in solid brass throughout, the fixture commands immediate attention through the authority of its scale and the precision of its ornamental program.

The broad circular corona is ebonized and banded in repoussé brass in a repeating foliate and X-form motif, a direct reference to the sabre-leg and crossed-arrow vocabulary of early nineteenth-century French Empire design. From this ring extend ten scrolled candle arms, each reeded and terminating in a fluted campana-form bobèche with gadrooned rim. The arms resolve at their outer ends in rosette terminals, reinforcing the neoclassical rigor of the overall composition.

The central column rises through a reeded vase-form shaft to a crown canopy hung on chain suspension, the upper register ornamented with drop pendants and foliate brackets. The finial below descends to a turned acorn drop. Throughout, the casting quality and surface chasing are consistent with Chapman’s highest production standards of the period.