Chamber candlestick

Arnaud Gautier

1699–1700 · Silver · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Seventeenth-century hand or chamber candlesticks were designed to be portable for carrying around the house to light one’s way to the bed chamber. This early late seventeenth-century example is supported on bulbous feet. The straight handle and socket are decorated with incised lines and the round wax pan has a gadrooned edge. Daughter of one of the founders of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company, Catherine D. Wentworth (1865–1948) was an art student and painter who lived in France for thirty years. She became one of the most important American collectors of eighteenth-century French silver and on her death in 1948 bequeathed part of her significant collection of silver, gold boxes, French furniture, and textiles to the Metropolitan Museum. The collection is particularly strong in domestic silver, much of it provincial such as this chamber candlestick made by Arnaux Gautier in Bordeaux, and includes a number of rare early pieces.

Artist

Arnaud Gautier

Date

1699–1700

Medium

Silver

Culture

French, Bordeaux

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Bequest of Catherine D. Wentworth, 1948