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Contact Schonbek
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Thursday, August 11, 2005
Early in my career of writing about crystal chandeliers, I misspelled the word “pendeloque” as “pendaloque.” The Schonbeks set me straight. It was embarrassing, let me tell you, because I had the audacity to argue for my misspelling!
“Pendeloque” is not in any of my dictionaries. So I thought it should be spelled like the word “pendant.” I find it fascinating that the crystal chandelier goes back so far in history, some of the terminology relating to it is obscure.
A pendeloque is a traditional crystal pendant used to ornament a chandelier. A French pendeloque is flat on both sides with beveled edges. There’s another type that’s flowery but not flat, pictured on this website. Schonbek uses at least a dozen styles of pendeloques in crystal chandelier design. This variety is unusual among chandelier makers, and arises from Schonbek’s love of crystal and deep knowledge of its many forms.
The ornate shapes of pendeloques are distantly reminiscent of the irregular chunks of rock crystal used to ornament the earliest chandeliers.
Crystal chandeliers trimmed with pendeloques were big in the seventeenth-century French court.
An interesting thing about French pendeloques is that they’re not glittery. You see the prismatic display of color just on the edges of the crystal, not the flat sides. So if you want a somewhat subdued crystal chandelier, you might consider one mostly trimmed with this type of pendeloque. Versailles by Schonbek is a good example, and this crystal chandelier design is very authentic to the period.
You might like to look at the chart of traditional crystal shapes on this website. If anything is misspelled, you can assume it’s my fault.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
I personally live in an old house with small rooms, and I’m content with that. But I know there’s a general trend to build bigger and bigger homes.
When houses become palaces, there can be a problem: vast overhead spaces that feel uncomfortably empty.
This is where crystal chandeliers come in. If you’re going to entertain company in a room big enough for a monarch to receive visits of State, you should have the type of lighting that the monarch would have had! Namely a grandly proportioned crystal chandelier. Perhaps several chandeliers.
Nothing fills a void like a crystal chandelier. And the crystal ceaselessly refracts the light in the room, softening and enriching the whole atmosphere. You achieve spaciousness without coldness with a crystal chandelier.
Of course, in this situation, the chandelier is out there in a very noticeable way, and it has to be perfect and wonderful. Best to stick with Schonbek crystal chandeliers, which you know have integrity of design and credentials that span two centuries.
Actually, I could make the same argument for the small crystal chandelier over my kitchen table. I’m up so close to it when I have breakfast, I can revel in the harmony of the design. I can even see the faint marks of the wood wheel on some of the handcut crystal pendeloques. This, by the way, is what the Schonbeks call “the mark of authenticity.”
If you’re interested in getting a crystal chandelier, you should ask a salesperson in a lighting showroom to give you a little show-and-tell on crystal of various types. Showrooms that carry Schonbek chandeliers train their staff to know all about crystal.
Tuesday, August 9, 2005
I made a road trip with our media director here at the agency, and as often happens, the conversation turned to crystal chandeliers.
She wants to buy a couple of Schonbek crystal chandeliers that could go in entryway of her condominium and at the top of her staircase. She’s been contemplating the purchase for almost two years and has changed her mind three times at least about which crystal chandeliers she wants.
Buying a crystal chandelier is an interesting experience. Some of us need lots of counseling from friends during the decision-making process. Others fall in love with a chandelier at first sight, and press forward quickly with the purchase.
When I was choosing crystal chandeliers for my dining area and kitchen, my husband and I studied Schonbek literature incessantly for about a month. We even took the catalogs to bed for our bedtime reading.
Such behavior might seem odd, but we had great fun.
I finally settled on La Scala for the dining area. This chandelier is heavily laden with handcut crystal in a variety of shapes, and the heavy cast arms remind me of the architectural ornamentation in Renaissance art. La Scala has the stateliness and dressiness of a crystal chandelier you might see in a museum, although the one I ordered is modest in size.
My husband decided that Versailles was “his” chandelier, and it went into the kitchen. This is a chandelier replete with curly shapes: ornate scrollwork and fancy crystal pendeloques. How does this square with a man who kayaks all year long, even on icy winter days? Intriguing.
Acquiring a Schonbek crystal chandelier is like buying an original painting or sculpture. You know you’re expressing something about yourself to all observers. You’re tempted to be adventurous, to surprise yourself and others.
Monday, August 8, 2005
When I first started writing the Schonbek ads, I gave a lot of thought to who might be buying a Schonbek crystal chandelier.
I envisioned the reader of the copy to be something of a romantic. She has experienced a great love, perhaps more than once. She feels a poetic attachment to home. A room full of fresh-cut flowers and beautiful things, lighted by a crystal chandelier, is her natural habitat.
Our reader would have traveled the world. After all, travelers see crystal chandeliers quite constantly in the museums, palaces and concert halls they visit. They realize the incredible historic resonance of a crystal chandelier.
Our reader would be responsive to beauty in every form. He would love art and music. He would collect things. Mexican folk art, or Turkish engravings, or Noh masks. An authentic crystal chandelier would appeal to his collector’s eye.
Often our reader would be immersed in a successful career. A crystal chandelier would be seen as a fitting reward for hard work.
Not least of all, our reader would be a recreational decorator. She would never tire of perfecting her living space. She would be daring, eclectic, willing to build a whole room around one dominant piece, like a crystal chandelier.
Every time I sat down to write a Schonbek ad, I did so with some eagerness. I really liked these hypothetical readers, and I wanted to make their lives more beautiful. Which owning a Schonbek crystal chandelier certainly would accomplish!
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My Favorite
Crystal Chandeliers
Versailles
La Scala
Florentine
Hamilton
Renaissance
Olde World
Buckingham
Genesis
The Rose
New Orleans
Cappela
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