H. Vian, Elegant Chandelier, France, circa 1880

Elegant twelve-light Louis XVI-inspired chandelier in marble and gilded bronze attr. to H. Vian, composed of a hemispherical bowl ending in a gilt-bronze finial formed by a gadrooned rosette centered with a seed motif. It is circled by a wide ribbon-tied torus of laurel leaves from which spring the six double scrolling, foliate light-arms. The bowl is suspended by six elegant articulated chains composed of flat oval links alternating with openwork diamond shapes and rosettes, attached by seed motifs to a sphere. The whole is crowned by a large upper canopy adorned with an openwork gallery of volutes and scrolling foliage.

Biography :
Henri Vian, a bronze-caster active in the second half of the 19th Century, made a lot of interior decorations with chimney mantelpieces, ormolu and patinated-mounted vases, chandeliers,… He produced articles of the highest quality. The business, located at 5 rue de Thorigny in Paris (the Salé Mansion, now the Picasso Museum), was continued by Madame Vian after her husband’s death in 1905.