Design for a pendant gas or electric light with a neoclassical vase shape from the base of which extend a central cluster of bulbs and two branches with an alternative of either gas jets on top or bulbs beneath. The design, made in 1879-1881, was for the firm of Francis Skidmore (1817-1896) which by this date had moved to Meriden, a village outside Coventry. By this date, Skidmore, who was a leading Victorian metalworker, employed designers to work for him. Now little known, Skidmore was once famous as the maker of the Albert Memorial (1863-1876) and the Hereford Screen (which was exhibited in London at the International Exhibition of 1862). Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878) designed both the memorial and the screen and employed Skidmore to execute them. Skidmore also produced light fittings, of which this design is one, drawn soon after Thomas Edision, the American inventor, produced the first practical light bulb in 1879.

This design is a highly finished presentation drawing to be shown to the client. Skidmore was interested in the new gas lighting and there are numerous designs for gas lighting brackets and pendant lights in the collection at the V&A.