Clouds drift, stars twinkle, leaves rustle, rainbows form and fade as you watch. There is so much movement in Nature. Yet when we go indoors, everything becomes static.

A crystal chandelier relieves this unnatural situation. The breaking up of light among the crystals fills the room with subtle spectral effects and brings everything to life.

Intriguing things happen to color, too, when you have a crystal chandelier. It refracts and reflects the colors that surround it. It becomes an integral and energetic part of the room.

If you really want your crystal chandelier to pick up the colors of the room in an extravagant way, you might consider an all crystal chandelier. Every part of the design is crystal, including the arms and body. Olde World is a magnificent example of this style. This crystal chandelier deserves a blog all its own.

Thursday, August 25, 2005
Buckingham is a rock crystal chandelier that really speaks to men. My husband is always suggesting we get one. This is out of the question, because Buckingham is designed on a monumental scale, and there’s no room in our house that would accommodate it.

But those who do happen to live like royalty certainly ought to consider Buckingham. (I would if I did.) It’s a glorious crystal chandelier.

The style dates back to eighteenth-century Spain. The ornate body supports an amazing display of authentic rock crystal gemstones. There are huge rock crystal drops and diamonds and massive bobeches of solid rock crystal. An enormous rock crystal ball hovers like a particularly bright full moon at the finial point.

The arms and scrolls of this chandelier undulate expansively and are dramatically outlined by crystal beads.

So Buckingham falls into several rarefied categories: rock crystal chandelier, beaded crystal chandelier, historic crystal chandelier.

Because the rock crystal pendants are oversized, you can see clearly the internal complexity of the quartz. There’s a record of the cataclysmic history of the planet in every chunk of rock crystal. Veins and fissures tell the tale of the terrific temperatures and tremendous pressures that manifested during the formation of Earth.

If you were in the presence of a Buckingham crystal chandelier, and you reached over and cupped the highly polished finial sphere in your hand, you would feel an eerie coolness. This is characteristic of rock crystal. No wonder rock crystal has been an object of desire among collectors since ancient times. You look into its depths, you touch its cool surface, and you feel like a philosopher pondering the mysteries of the universe.