I know how you are all wishing that I would do another candlestick post, so here's one for you.
I bought this at a flea market for about £15. The seller said that he thought it was very old. I agreed with him. The trouble with metalwork is that it is really difficult to date (I sent a photo of it to an international candlestick expert and he said that the trouble with metalwork is that it is really difficult to date).
So I put my Sherlock Holmes hat on, lit a few pipes of opium and within about 10 hours I came up with this theory.
It looks and feels like an item from three or four hundred years ago. It is very intricately made and the candles that went into the holders were no more than tapers - very thin. Tapers were usually burnt to melt sealing wax or light pipes, so only one flame would be needed on one desk or table. This has three.
If it was intended as a light-source, why weren't the candles bigger and thicker to give off more light? This was not for light. It reminded me of the purely decorative Christmas candlesticks that you used to be able to buy in places like Woolworth, but I think it was not just for Christmas.
In the era that I believe this thing to be made, Catholics were commonly persecuted and often held Mass in secret. There were 'priest holes' in which the Catholic priest could hide in the event of a Protestant raid on the house of a Papist family. Catholics were being blamed for almost every catastrophe, including the Great Fire of London in 1666.
So many Catholic houses at the time had secret private chapels. I think that this candle holder was for the altar of such a chapel and the three thin candles represented the Holy Trinity.
What do you think of this theory? At least one collector believed it. He bought the thing for £600.
WOW ..... you made a nice little profit on that didn’t you ? How long between you buying it for £15 and selling it for £600 ? .... Did you give your theory to the buyer .... I reckon that helped to sell it. Maybe it was set at a table where a few people were working ? XXXX
ReplyDeleteLike I said, it was not for lighting.
DeleteCould be … three thick candles would hardly be needed in a priest's hole. Watching "The Favourite" the other day, I did wonder exactly how less affluent households saw anything at all after dark.
ReplyDeleteOne candle.
DeleteOne tallow candle.
DeleteAs an ex blacksmith I would examine the workmanship and technicalities. How were the ends of the scrolls finished? How were the candle holders rolled and finished? What jointing methods were employed? Is it made of wrought iron or mild steel?
ReplyDeleteFrom your photo it looks old and hand made, so you could well be right....
I made all those examinations, of course.
DeleteAnd I have done a lot of forge work.
DeleteYou are a delight, Mr. Stephenson, and quite right. Just ask the buyer.
ReplyDeleteThe buyer was so pleased that I think I may have undersold it. It was a museum piece.
DeleteWhatever its use and however much its worth I absolutely love it. It would have been perfect in our farmhouse - not in my modern bungalow though. Did the money go in your car fund?
ReplyDeleteNo Weave. The money disappeared down the same black hole that all my money disappears down.
DeleteWell done, Tom.
ReplyDeleteThat was one of my more successful attempts at adding value.
DeleteI have a very heavy wrought iron pricket candlestick which takes three candles. Maybe it's a magical number.
ReplyDeleteI think that pairs of candles only really work as a set if they are two separate sticks, although they did make twin sticks. So I don't know, basically.
Delete