Canton Porcelain Chandelier, China France Circa 1880

Charming nine-lights chandelier in porcelain and gilded bronze. It is composed of a Famille Rose Chinese imported porcelain cup, with polychrome decoration on a white background of Palace scenes in cartouches, separated by flowers and butterflies in reserves, all embellished with a thin glided bronze mount from which spring the light-arms. The inside is decorated with a floral frieze on the edge, and a bird posed in the middle of nature in a medallion with a central border on the bottom. The set is suspended by three chains with openwork links in gilded bronze connecting the chandelier to a porcelain ceiling light decorated with palace scenes, ending with a gilded bronze seed.

The Famille Rose decor appears during the Qing dynasty, around 1720. It’s a Dutch chimist, Andréas Cassius, who discovers in 1650 the chemical formula allowing to obtain pink enamels caller thereafter « purple of Cassius », which arrives at the court of China around 1719 through the Jesuits. The purple mixed with an opaque white based on arsenic gives the pink to which the decorative palette owes its name. The Famille Rose porcelain have polychrome decorations in which pink tones dominate and very often have a plant motif composed of flowers and bouquets.

In the 19th century in Europe, many assemblies were made from imported Canton-type porcelain pieces (cup, vase, etc.), which were transformed into lamps, chandeliers or cups by the addition of gilded bronze mounts.