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Bright Lights

This brass, ceramic, and glass chandelier, originally gas-burning but later converted to electricity, was created in the 1870s by an unknown maker.

©Mark Morosse

It reflects two aesthetic trends of the time, says Erin Eisenbarth, acting assistant curator of American decorative arts at the University Art Gallery: “a taste for the exotic and a desire to create objects that were both useful and beautiful.” The latter half of the century saw a variety of revival styles in the decorative arts—medieval, Renaissance, classical—combined with a passion for design motifs from Asian and other distant cultures. Designers blended these styles to create eclectic, out-of-the-ordinary items like this piece. The chandelier is now in the Art Gallery Furniture Study, a York Street basement that holds one of the finest collections of U.S.-made furniture in the world.  the end

 
   
 
 
 
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