Object Type
Though quite obviously a candlestick, this object seems to be unique. It has neither a flat-rimmed nozzle to hold the candle nor a central drip pan, features typical of contemporary brass candlesticks.

Materials & Making
In late 16th-century England, the native pottery industry was not highly advanced. Imported Chinese porcelain had not yet appeared. The immigrant Netherlandish maiolica (painted tin-glazed earthenware) potters had made little impact. Most beer mugs and bottles were of German stoneware, and most decorated pottery tableware was imported from The Netherlands, France, Germany or Italy. In London, the best locally-made earthenwares came from the cluster of small potteries on the Surrey-Hampshire borders. Here good beds of tough clays, either red or almost white, were to be found. It was from these potteries that the Inner Temple in London is known to have ordered beer mugs, probably of the type copying imports from Frechen in Germany. The Inner Temple badge impressed on this candlestick shows that around 1600 they must have ordered other utilitarian wares. The use of candles for lighting, rather than grease lamps or rush lights (in which the pith of a rush was dipped in grease), shows a certain degree of sophistication, although the form of this candlestick is starkly functional.