Friday, February 29, 2008
A crystal chandelier doesn’t have to be overwhelming. If you want the dazzle of crystal, but with a light hand, you’ll find many choices within the Schonbek design portfolio.

Tiara, for example, is composed of crystal beads rather than chunky crystal pendants. It looks something like a hanging basket of flowers, but the floral fantasy comes from the design motifs in the intricate framework. The chains are a delight, made up of little fan-like elements embedded with crystal.

Timbrel is all about a graceful shape, and there are just the merest touches of crystal to be playful. I like the rock crystal version of Timbrel, but there’s a clear crystal version as well as a Timbrel with colored crystal. And of course there are various finish options. As always, Schonbek makes it easy to coordinate a crystal chandelier with your color scheme.

And then there’s Jasmine. This crystal chandelier is an interesting combination of strength and delicacy. The flawless faceted crystal body of the chandelier, suggestive of a massive diamond, is imposing. But because there's no extraneous embellishment, no lavish array of crystal pendants, the impression Jasmine gives is one of perfect purity of form. The graceful curves of the slender arms enhance this feeling.

I have a penchant for chandeliers with lots of crystal. Might as well admit it. But crystal can be used with restraint as well. Schonbek takes great pleasure in reinventing the crystal chandelier and as a result, what was a trendy idea in the sixteenth century is still a trendy idea today.

Wednesday, February 27

The Victorians liked to name the different rooms in their country estates, and then decorate accordingly. The Blue Room. The Rose Room. That sort of thing. Or maybe the décor came first, and the names followed.

It would be amusing to do this in our present day, especially if you have traditional furnishings. And to hang a crystal chandelier that tied in with your names.

The Blue Room might have a lot of faded blues and pinks. A Sterling chandelier with pink crystal could be nice in this context.

The Rose Room is a no brainer. For this space you would want The Rose crystal chandelier, in any of its 32 varieties. Furnishings would follow the romantic lead of the crystal chandelier.

Some old country estates have a room where George Washington or Lafayette slept. It would be named after the famous sleeper. You could try to figure out what VIP might have stayed overnight in your town a couple of centuries ago, and name a room after him or her. Or pick a mysterious title, like The Courier’s Room, after some unnamed Revolutionary War courier.

In this context you could have any crystal chandelier style that was around in the late eighteenth century. How about a modest little Roma? The rock crystal ornaments and the castings have strong character. A military man could sleep without a qualm beneath Roma. So could anyone, for that matter.

Tuesday, February 26

There’s a fashion right now for making lists. Great buildings of the world. Trips to make before you die. Ten masterpieces of cinema you must see.

If I were writing a book called Great Chandeliers of the Western World, what would it include?

Certainly a Versailles crystal chandelier. If you like museums, you’ll often come across this antique style of chandelier in period room settings. The earliest examples appeared in seventeenth-century France, commissioned by King Louis XIV. You can recognize the style by the absence of a center column and the way the frame supports itself by means of its ornate baroque scrollwork.

Schonbek offers two collections in this style. Versailles is trimmed with traditional French pendeloques. Renaissance is trimmed with large faceted crystal drops, which put on quite a show of prismatic brilliance.

Maria Theresa would have to be in any list of historically important crystal chandeliers. It dates back to the eighteenth century and was originally designed to honor the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa.

You’ll recognize this style by the crystal listels lining both sides of the arms and other frame elements. Circular crystal rosettes hide the joints where the listels meet. Overall this is a curiously elaborate way to design a chandelier, but it works in the hands of good designers like Schonbek. Maria Theresa, more than any other style, has suffered from clumsy reproduction. Schonbek’s version is highly stylized and voluptuous. The violin shape of the chandelier is clearly visible despite the intricate construction of frame elements and the elaborate trim.

Cast chandeliers are tremendously important and were popular in Italy, Spain and France in the eighteenth century. These chandeliers had massive cast arms exhibiting deeply chiseled, three-dimentional relief and ornamented with leaves and scrolls. A present day example is La Scala by Schonbek, which you can have with clear crystal or rock crystal ornamentation.

Schonbek uses antique family molds for making the arms and scrolls of La Scala.

No discussion of significant crystal chandelier styles would be complete without a mention of Empire, dating back to the empire of Napoleon. Schonbek offers several collections in this style; Camelot and Roman Empire, for example. But you will also see echos of Empire styling in several eclectic Schonbek chandelier designs. Trilliane comes immediately to mind.