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Three-piece gilt girandole with facade of Bigelow Chapel, Mount Auburn Cemetary; two single lights, one three-branch candelabrum on gray marble bases; all have stem with branching flowers and coronet of flowers just below socket; from each coronet hang ten three-part crystals, engraved with gothic swag motif.
girandoles (candleholders)
brass (alloy)
gilding
marble (rock)
Candleholder
Girandole
Girandole
"Cherished Possessions": These candlesticks were designed to dazzle. When placed in front of a mirror on a mantel, as they often were, they reflected light from the mirror, and their glass prisms sent sparkles dancing across the room. The gilded base depicts the chapel at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the first pastoral cemetery in America, which was widely imitated in communities across the country. Both the maker of this set and its first owner had family members who were buried at Mount Auburn.
Each marked in casting on back of chapel: W.F. SHAW/174 WASH(INGTON)/BOSTON/PATENT/ DEC 18 1849
114
Shaw, W. F. (Maker)
Sarah Moore Field Collection
1998.5898.3
Massachusetts (United States)
Boston (Suffolk county, Massachusetts)
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