PROBABLY GENOA, 19TH CENTURY, REUSING EARLIER ELEMENTS

The design of this lot was closely inspired by Genovese chandeliers of the Barocchetto period. This type of chandelier, with its entire structure covered in small, faceted glass and crystal beads was produced in Genoa from the end of the seventeenth century to the mid-eighteenth century, and was favored by Ligurian and Piedmontese aristocratic families. The fleur-de-lys drops adorning this impressive chandelier may possibly relate this lot to the Doria family, whose coat-of-arms also feature this design element. Similar chandeliers of eighteenth-century manufacture with circular bands at their upper section are in the in the Palazzo Reale, Turin and were exhibited in 1963 at the 'Mostra del Barocco Piemontese,' see V. Viale, Mostra del Barocco Piemontese, exh. cat., Vol. III, Turin, 1963, pls. 284 and 286. The bands found on the chandeliers in Turin form the bases of royal crowns and it is possible that the Rothschild chandelier was once also fitted with a similar crown, of which only the lower glass-mounted band remains today.