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Thomas Coulborn & Sons
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George III cut glass chandelier
( England
c. 1790
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Medium
cut glass
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Dimensions
51.00inch high
( 129.54 cm high)
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Diameter:
32.00inch
(
81.28 cm in diameter)
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Provenance
Possibly supplied to Woodgate Family at Somerhill, Tonbridge, Kent
Possibly James Alexander Esq.
Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, 1849
Lady d’Avigdor-Goldsmid moved the chandelier from Somerhill to The Old Laundry in 1981
By descent
The Jacobean mansion of Somerhill was built circa 1611-13 by Frances, daughter and heiress of Queen Elizabeth’s minister Sir Francis Walsingham, and her third husband, Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde. It was built on part of the Manor of Southfirth that had been presented to Frances by Queen Elizabeth I. There is a draft plan preserved in the Soane Museum with a note suggesting the architect was John Thorpe. The estate subsequently passed to the Woodgate family and was later acquired by James Alexander Esq., in 1816, who engaged Sir Jeffery Wyattville to remodel the interior. In 1849 Somerhill was bought by Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid from whom it passed by descent until the early 1980’s when the family moved out and there was a sale of much of the contents organized by Sotheby’s. Somerhill has subsequently become a school.
The present chandelier hung in the small Drawing Room at Somerhill, from the time when the Goldsmid family first acquired the house, in 1849, until 1981. It may be that the chandelier was supplied to the house at the time it was made, circa 1790, but there is no documentary evidence to prove that.
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Literature:
Cf. Ralph Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, Vol I, p.336 fig. 23 for a chandelier bearing similar spires now in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, and p. 337 fig. 24 for a very similar glass urn in the stem.
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Condition:
The chandelier underwent some restoration work at Osler’s around 1895 when some repairs and replacements were made. The detailed analysis is as follows:
The main stem is in good original condition, the lower canopy is a later replacement circa 1895. Of the candle branches one arm has been repaired, one is a replacement. One drip pan has been repaired, one candle nozzle repaired and one candle nozzle is a replacement circa 1895. Of the kick arms one has been repaired. Three of the spires were replaced circa 1895. In general the chandelier is in excellent overall condition for its period.
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Description / Expertise
The six candle arms alternating with kick arms bearing spires
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