A PAIR OF NAPOLEON III BRASS AND GLASS TWELVE-LIGHT CHANDELIERS

Charles Stanislas Matifat, fonduer, of 11 rue de la Perle, Paris, obtained une médaille de 2e classe at the 1851 Great Exhibition, London where he was commended for having ‘s’est appliqué à chercher des formes nouvelles, variées et élégantes’ (Travaux de la Com. Française, Expo. 1851, cited in B. Metman, Documents sur la sculpture française Répertoire des fondeurs du XIXe siècle, Nogent-le-Roi, 1989. p. 202). This chandelier, together with one other in Louis XIV style, made by Matifat for the King of Holland, was discussed in Le Palais de Cristal¸ no. 17, 31 August 1851, p. 265. It was described as ‘un lustre indien’; the term referring to the luminescent natural light of India and how indigenous craftsmen purposefully facetted glass to reflect natural light back to create prisms of colour.