Winter 2016

2016 Antiques & Fine Art 145 Fig. 5: Eight-arm candelabrum made by Cornelius & Baker, Philadelphia, ca. 1853. Gilt brass, iron. H. 32 in., Diam. 18¼ in. This candelabrum serves alternately as a centerpiece by removing the candle arms and pierced cover to the bowl above the arms. Courtesy Brooklyn Museum. Fig. 6: Gas pillar made by Cornelius & Baker, Philadelphia,1853-1860. Bronzed zinc, brass, glass. H. 22½ in. The catalogue of the Franklin Institute’s twenty-fourth exhibition of American manufactures held in Philadelphia in 1853 described this fixture as “Gas pillar, Knight in Armour.” Private collection. Founded in Philadelphia in 1824, 4 an important component of the institute’s initiative consisted of annual competitive exhibitions to foster excellence in American arts and manufactures. The Cornelius firm displayed its wares in those exhibitions, beginning in 1830, and always garnered acclaim. Following the 1853 exhibition, the judging committee described the work submitted by the company as of such “great beauty, excellence, and taste [that] they bid fair to be soon classed in the department of Fine Arts.”  5 The admiration for the firm’s wares was not limited to the United States. In 1851, Cornelius & Baker submitted two massive chandeliers, each measuring fifteen and a half feet high by six feet in diameter, along with twenty-four “damask” solar lamps and seven “olive” colored solar lamps, to the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London. Among the many admiring reviews, all were impressed with Cornelius & Baker’s submission, noting in their various publications that the chandeliers were “graceful specimens of workmanship, designed in good taste... the casting was remarkable for its f ineness, sharpness, and uniformity” (Fig. 5). One noted that American lighting manufacturers “have attained so much excellence as to be willing to vie in the Exhibition with the oldest and most celebrated houses in the world.”  6