The History Of Chandelier Lighting

Many of us take chandelier lighting for granted.  We see it in various homes and offices and immediately realize that this is a room of quality and substance.  It’s true, chandelier lighting has been around for years and years, but have we ever stopped to ask the question “Where did it all begin”?  The world of chandelier lighting is indeed a fascinating subject.  Let’s take a journey into this world…

So, before we begin, just what is a chandelier anyway?  The official definition is a branched decorative ceiling-mounted light fixture existing of two or more arms each bearing lights.  Now that’s quite the definition…let’s break it down a bit more.  Chandeliers are often very elaborate and sophisticated.  They can contain dozens of lamps and many complex sets of either glass or crystal prisms.  Crystal prisms have an added benefit…they can fill a whole room with refracted light.

The chandelier started from the most humble of beginnings.  They were originally used in medieval places of assembly.  They originally took the form of a wooden cross with a number of spikes driven through so that candles could be secured to them.  This whole assembly was then hoisted to the ceiling of a room via a rope or chain, and secured via a hook.

From these humble beginnings chandeliers have evolved over the years.  Do you happen to know the largest chandelier in the world as denoted by the Guinness Book of World Records?  It is located in an office building in Doha, Qatar…and it is beautiful!

Where does this funny name come from anyway?  The word chandelier appeared in the English language in the late 14th Century.  It made its way to the English language from the 10th Century French word Chandelabre, which in turn came from the Latin Candela meaning candle.

Starting in the 15th century more elaborate forms of chandeliers based on the designs of rings or crowns started to appear. They gradually found their way into palaces and the homes of clergy, nobility, and the merchant class as well. We must keep in mind that after the sun went down lighting of any form was rare. If you were able to have an illumination source like a chandelier, you had a symbol of status and luxury. By the time the 18th century rolled around, chandeliers with curved arms and many candles could be found in many of the homes of the growing merchant class.

The 18th century saw many advances in the art of glassmaking. This lead to the cheaper production of lead crystal. Crystal is highly refractive and has light-scattering properties that made it well suited for chandelier design. This popular addition lead to the crystal chandelier.

By the time the 19th century rolled around gas light became a source of illumination. Gas illuminated chandeliers started to appear in the mid-19th century, and many candle chandeliers were converted to gas versions around this time. In the 1890′s electricity emerged as a popular source of energy, and it wasn’t long before fixtures wired for only electricity became standard.

More complex, elaborate, and beautiful versions of chandeliers were developed throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Eventually the introduction of gas and electricity devalued the appeal of this form of lighting.

By the time the end of the 20th century rolled around, chandeliers were used more as a decorative focal point for a room, and less as a source of illumination.

Here’s a bit of trivia for you. Do you know where the world’s largest Bohemian crystal chandelier resides? It was a gift from Queen Victoria, and it is located in the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul. It has 750 lamps and weighs in at 4.5 tons. This palace has the largest collection of Bohemian and Baccarat crystal chandeliers in the world.

Here’s another piece of trivia. What is the most famous chandelier in the world? This is open for debate of course, but how about this…the chandelier in the Opera Garnier (which in the 1910 Gaston Leroux novel The Phantom of the Opera is crashed by the Phantom).