Candle Stand (torchère) (2 of 2) (c. 1773): Art, History and Details

Candle Stand (torchère) (2 of 2) (c. 1773) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Thomas Chippendale (British, 1718–1779).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This gilded candle stand was made by Thomas Chippendale, the most renowned cabinetmaker in eighteenth-century London, for the grand drawing room of Brocket Hall, a large country house in Hertfordshire, England. With finely carved acanthus leaves, swags, fluting, and oval masks depicting the Roman goddess Diana, this candle stand exhibits Chippendale’s masterful understanding of neoclassical proportion, scale, and ornament. His landmark book of furniture designs, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (first published in 1754), was highly admired as a source of inspiration by cabinetmakers and architects around England as well as in Europe and America.

Object facts

• Title: Candle Stand (torchère) (2 of 2)
• Date: c. 1773
• Creator attribution: Thomas Chippendale (British, 1718–1779)
• Culture: England, 18th century
• Type: Furniture and woodwork
• Technique: Gilt-wood, gesso
• Dimensions: 154 x 56 x 51 cm (60 5/8 x 22 1/16 x 20 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 2018.203.2

A detail from the museum

Candle stands usually held silver or crystal candelabra that were lit for evening entertainment.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Christie's London. Important English Furniture. July 7, 1994. no. 100.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.