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CHANDELIER

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 837 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHANDELIER , a See also:

frame of See also:metal, See also:wood, crystal, See also:glass or See also:china, pendent from roof or See also:ceiling for the purpose of holding See also:lights. The word is See also:French, but the appliance has lost its See also:original significance of a See also:candle-holder, the chandelier being now chiefly used for See also:gas and electric See also:lighting. Clusters of See also:hanging lights were in use as See also:early as the 14th See also:century, and appear originally to have been almost invariably of wood. They were, however, so speedily ruined by grease that metal was gradually subsituted, and See also:fine and comparatively early examples in beaten See also:iron, See also:brass, See also:copper and even See also:silver are still extant. Throughout the 17th century the hanging candle-holder of brass or See also:bronze was See also:common throughout See also:northern See also:Europe, as innumerable pictures and engravings testify. In the See also:great periods of the See also:art of decoration in See also:France many magnificent chandeliers were made by See also:Boulle, and at a later date by Gouthiere and Thomire and others among the extraordinarily See also:clever fondeurs-ciseleurs of the second See also:half of the 18th century. The chandelier in See also:rock crystal and its imitations had come in at least a See also:hundred years before their See also:day, and continued in favour to the See also:middle of the 19th century, or even somewhat later. It reached at last the most extreme elaboration of banality, with See also:ropes of pendants and hanging faceted drops often called lustres. When many lights were burning in one of these chandeliers an effect of splendour was produced that was not out of See also:place in a ballroom, but the See also:ordinary See also:household varieties were extremely ugly and inartistic. The more purely domestic chandelier usually carries from two to six lights. The rapidly growing use of See also:electricity as an See also:illuminating See also:medium and the preference for smaller clusters of lights have, however, pushed into the background an appliance which had grown extremely See also:commonplace in See also:design, and had become out of See also:character with See also:modern ideas of household decoration.

End of Article: CHANDELIER

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