Candlestick

Object Type
Candlesticks were essential domestic equipment. Before the 1780s, candles were the chief source of artificial light. Silver candlesticks and candles, though expensive, were a necessary luxury to enhance status, although candlesticks could be made of a variety of other materials, including Sheffield plate, pewter, brass, ceramics or glass. They were used all over the house and moved from place to place as required. Candles could be made of tallow (animal fat), bees-wax or spermaceti (whale oil). Tallow was the cheapest of these three types. In 1707 a large ox weighing 150 stone was recorded as rendering 21 stone of tallow. Bees-wax candles were three times as expensive as tallow. The cost of candlelight was increased by taxes levied from 1709. Even in the grandest households the use of candles was limited unless entertaining. In 1774, Lady Leicester of the palatial Holkham Hall in Norfolk was reported to sew every night by the light of a single candle.

Design
The design of candlesticks reflected changing fashions in the 18th century. This candlestick in the Neo-classical style uses a range of classically inspired ornament, including the urn, a fluted column and swags. The candlestick form was well suited to the technical innovation of die stamping. In this technique, where relief decoration is formed in thin sheets of silver, the ornament could be assembled in a variety of combinations to provide a vast supply of models, differing from each other in only one or two details. This candlestick has a detachable nozzle, an innovation of the 1740s to prevent dripping wax from soiling the candlesticks.