AN ENGLISH GILT-BRASS AND CABOUCHON-SET GIRANDOLE

From the late 1860s, 'Artistic' furniture manufacturer, Cox & Sons (1837-81) of 28-9 Southampton Street, London, who included metalwork in their repertoire, commissioned designs from preeminent commercial designers including Bruce Talbert (d.1881). Talbert was one of a small number responsible for the introduction of Reformed Gothic, a plainer, geometric and secular style to which this girandole belongs, a style that swiftly followed the Gothic Revival ecclesiastical taste of A.W.N. Pugin (d.1852). The successful partnership between fashionable designers and superb craftsmanship for which the firm was renowned led to the latter's representation at most of the international exhibitions, in London in 1862, 1871, 1872, 1873, Paris in 1867 and Philadelphia in 1876, where they were awarded several prizes. In 1872, Building News illustrated Cox & Sons' exhibits at the International Exhibition of that year including several examples of metalwork that like the present girandole aptly demonstrate this innovative style (Building News, May 31, 1872).