Old Domestic Base-Metal Candlesticks

Old Domestic Base-Metal Candlesticks by Michaelis, Ronald F.. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780902028272.

Base-metal candlesticks - those in brass, bronze, pewter and paktong - rather than the valuable metals such as silver and gold, fall into a fascinating category of antiques. Everybody recognises them, they can still be bought, a large number of people collect them, but nobody knows very much about them. This is understandable for hardly anything of any substance has been written on candlesticks apart from a short learned paper delivered to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1926. This posthumous book is the first detailed account to record the development of the candlestick from the 13th to the 19th century. The author was a leading authority on metalwork (particularly pewter), gained from his long experience as a dealer, coupled with painstaking research particularly of candlesticks portrayed in contemporary paintings. He amassed a large collection of photographs of examples most of which he had personally examined. The result is a key reference book particularly useful because of the caref