AFA Winter 2019

2019 Antiques & Fine Art 111 baroque chandelier is unusual in that its construction is primarily hammered rather than sandcast, with drawn and shaped graduated branches. There were additions, subtractions, and reinforcements to the candle cups and drip pans; several branches and the core spheres were not aligned, but its age and origin made it irresistible to the Fig. 4: Detail of figure 3 showing the lower sphere’s commemorative inscription for the Lynch family and the Dominican priory of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in Galway, Ireland. Watch for these alterations to brass or metal chandeliers • Original components hand-numbered with dots, numbers, or symbols that don’t match • Holes drilled into core and candle cups for electrification, but not the original candle ejector holes • Replaced candle sockets or drip pans • Replaced suspension ring at top; replaced or lost ring or pendant drop at bottom • Paint applied over original surface of degraded lacquer or chemically altered patina • Electroplating over original metal surface 1. e New-York Gazette’s noted that “six silver branches” from the Cathedral in Strasbourg were being melted at the royal mint (June 23, 1760). British silver chandeliers in American museums today include the ten-light chandelier marked by Daniel Garnier of London, England, ca. 1691–1697, acquired in 1938 by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and the eight-light chandelier designed by William Kent and marked by Balthasar Friedrich Behrens of Hanover, Germany, ca. 1736–1737, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, acquired in 1985. Fig. 3: Twelve-light chandelier, dated 1742, attributed to Mark Fallon, Galway, Ireland. Silver, silverplate on brass, iron. Winterthur Museum, bequest of Henry Francis du Pont (1956.0519). museum’s founder. The catalogue described it as Irish, dated 1742. Subsequent research determined it was made for a family named Lynch who donated it to the Dominican priory just outside Galway’s town walls. The donors were two sisters, Bridget and Ann Lynch, who became nuns in 1691. The funds for this commission may have been a legacy from their brother John, commemorated, along with his sisters, by the inscription on the lowest sphere. Or this possibly was the family’s patrimonial chandelier repurposed for the religious order’s chapel, where it remained until 1893. When sold in New York many years later, the chandelier’s context of an ecclesiastical donation, Irish women’s silver patronage, and the history of many generations of use were nearly lost. Discovering meaning in the intangible elements of an object’s provenance can be as compelling as the visual evidence of manufacture, artistry, and alteration when collecting antiques, sometimes even more so. This chandelier and other Irish American decorative arts from Winterthur Museum will be on view at the Delaware Antiques Show, November 8–10, 2019. For information, visit winterthur.org . Ann Wagner is curator of decorative arts, Winterthur Museum Garden & Library.