Tôle, Gilt-Metal and Glass Hanging Light
A larege tôle, gilt-metal and Glass hanging lantern, the suspension chains in the form of flower-decked leafy branches, the bowl base, possibly designed to house a goldfish, with floral swags and supporting two candle-branches wired with ‘French candles’
Gerard-Jean Galle (1788-1846) famously designed and made a painted, gilt-bronze and glass chandelier in 1818 with a suspended glass bowl at the base which he specifically stated was intended to contain a poisson d’or, or goldfish – he liked the idea of the shifting reflected light on the constantly moving goldfish. Two versions of this Galle chandelier exist, one is in the Getty Museum, California and the second, formerly in the collection of Daisy Fellowes, was sold at Sotheby’s Monte Carlo.
