Friday, March 14, 2008
Wall sconces are an under-explored area of interior design. In old houses, sconces seem to be used as a sensible solution to a small dark hallway or stairway, and they’re not usually big. But a crystal wall sconce can be as imposing and intriguing as a crystal chandelier.

If you have some of these sensible little one-light sconces in your home, consider bringing them up a notch. Even if the space where a sconce resides is small, a two or three light crystal wall sconce can replace it without being too overwhelming, in most cases. And then your dark little hall becomes a beauty spot.

Crystal wall sconces give a room or space a sense of importance, and are rather romantic. The long corridors in medieval castles were always lit by torches mounted on the walls (at least that’s my take from the movies). So when you live with wall sconces, you start feeling a bit like royalty, or at least like a courtier in the castle.

A La Scala wall sconce is just the thing for a baroque feeling. The back plate of this sconce is particularly elaborate. The handcut crystal pendants are oversized and luxuriant.  You can’t go wrong with La Scala in a traditional setting.

Black crystal wall sconces are gorgeous against walls painted red, gold, peach, blue – any rich color. Also against creamy walls, of course.  Two beautiful examples are Cappela and Hamilton.

You don’t have to be traditional to have the pleasure of designing with wall sconces. Jasmine is utterly simple and yet very striking, an excellent choice for a restrained décor. If your home is eclectic or unusually creative, a Trilliane wall sconce might be excellent. This sconce is exceedingly brilliant, being composed of Strass® crystal. And it’s wall art too, sculptural in form and quite fanciful.

If you’re going to get creative with wall sconces, you should study every example on this website, Schonbek offers so many different styles. And be sure to visit a good lighting showroom to see the real thing. Call 800-836-1892 for a showroom near you.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Comfortably well-off ladies in their eighties and nineties often have a history of collecting antique cut glass bowls, pitchers and vases. If you have such a mother, grandmother, aunt or great-aunt, you may inherit or be given some these pieces in time.

Think of them as the bling of past generations. If you decide to display them, you might consider getting a crystal chandelier with a complementary degree of brilliance.

I own some cut glass pieces myself, given to me by two elderly relatives. And I can assure you that nothing goes better with bling than bling. I had Schonbek crystal chandeliers before I had cut glass bowls, but they were instantly happy to find themselves together.

If I were deliberately choosing a crystal chandelier to go with a cut glass collection, I might choose Olde World. Column pieces, dishes and bobeches are outstanding examples of elaborately cut crystal. The crystal pendants exhibit the precision cutting and prismatic brilliance only seen in Strass® crystal. And the arms of the chandelier are hand-formed crystal.

So you have every sort of crystal surface refracting and reflecting light, doing the same thing as your antique crystal bowls, but on a grand scale.

If your budget is modest, a good choice might be Sterling. You can keep the price down by ordering Legacy Collection® crystal, which comes from Murano in Italy. To be utterly traditional, choose Heritage Handcut® crystal. Or go for the utmost glitter with Strass®. Sterling offers very intricate crystal column pieces and dishes, and a lavish amount of crystal trim.

Sterling, by the way, is adorable as a mini chandelier. You don't need palatial rooms to accommodate the dazzle of crystal.

A cut glass pitcher full of fresh cut flowers beneath a crystal chandelier makes a very pretty picture to come home to.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Antique styles of crystal chandeliers will never lose their appeal because the past holds so much fascination for us.

The nice thing about the past is that we can pick and choose what to remember. We can forget the lack of modern medicine and conveniences and concentrate on art and fashion.

Andrew Schonbek has often emphasized that Schonbek crystal chandelier designs are not slavish reproductions. What Schonbek enjoys is to revive the spirit not the literal productions of the past. In a way this is much more authentic than making a copy of an antique chandelier. The creative spirit that infuses a design can’t be copied. So if you bring your own creativity to bear, and take the antique style as inspiration, that’s much more interesting and valuable.

Sometimes Schonbek will bring together several streams of design inspiration. Dorchester, for example, pays tribute to the clean classical lines of English Regency architecture with its very dignified handcut parallel prisms of crystal. Whereas the Italianate cast arms and frame elements are unabashedly ornamental. Passion and discipline meet, with beautiful results.

It’s hard to believe that you haven’t seen this crystal chandelier in an old engraving, it looks so much like an antique. Yet it’s an original design from our own era.

Artists of all ages have drawn inspiration from antiquity, and then brought their own ideas into play to create something fresh and new. Even the bad boys of contemporary art need tradition to react against.

Schonbek has done this as well, with Geometrix® high tech lighting. The classic crystal chandelier morphs into a box, a swiggle or a sphere.

It intrigues me that Schonbek can be both classic and iconoclastic. Proof that the creative impulse can take many paths.