A fine pair of Regency period ormolu-mounted cut-glass eight-light chandeliers by John Blades, the main drop-hung double band issuing flat-cut drip pans and diamond-cut candle nozzles, and the central shaft formed as a urn from granulated spangles; this urn surmounted by another double band supporting drop-hung crooks cascading to the main band, the chandelier with a graduated basket of spangles below and terminating with an ormolu-leaf pan and lapidary-cut finial; the chandeliers hung with double-pointed spangles and faceted icicle drops.
John Blades was one of the leading glass-smiths of the late eighteen and early nineteenth centuries. First recorded in 1783, he rose to prominence quickly. By 1789 he had succeeded Lazarus Jacobs as glass-maker to George III and in 1797 the Drapers’ Company commissioned him to produce two chandeliers for the Court Room, where they survive today and confirm Blades’ status as a pioneer in ‘fountain’ design.
Blades became one of the most important manufacturers of glass in England and the world. In addition to important English clients such as the Marquess of Westminster at Eaton Hall, Blades attracted international commissions from the King of Persia, the Pasha of Egypt and the Tsar of Russia whom he supplied whilst providing George III and the government pieces for export as diplomatic gifts to other foreign rulers and dignitaries such as the Sultan of Turkey.
Highly innovative, Blades’ firm was responsible for the invention of the rule-cut drop, known as the ‘lob’, that would be widely used by makers throughout the 1820s and 1830s and into the nineteenth century. His showrooms on 5 Ludgate Hill, remodelled in 1823 by architect J. B. Papworth, were amongst the most celebrated in the country and testified to the firm’s stature at this time.
Anticipating the rise of the extravagant fountain or waterfall chandelier during the 1820s and 1830s, the present chandeliers, with their tapering central columns of graduated spangles and drop-hung strings of beads, possess great elegance. Made prior to the introduction of the grand but often austere lob, they retain much eighteenth-century grace and restraint.
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