| Never before in the long history of the | | | | off it supporting crystal drops, beads and |
| chandelier has there been such choice as | | | | flowers. For all the festoons and bags drops, |
| there is today. You can buy over the internet | | | | glass arms, full panoply of other elements, |
| or in person. You can scour the brocante | | | | the French chandelier is distinctively never |
| stalls in French markets or the junk shops in | | | | heavy or crowded and always alluring. |
| England or America. | | | | |
| | | | Perhaps the best known and longest |
| When you hang a French chandelier in your | | | | established chandelier maker in France is the |
| home you acquire something beautiful and | | | | firm of Baccarat, which continues to thrive |
| practical and an object that will become a | | | | today. |
| focus for the room. Other decorations will | | | | |
| revolve around it. It will become a talking | | | | Chandeliers come in all shapes and sizes - |
| point, the centrepiece. A fireplace draws | | | | some more unusual than others. Amongst some |
| attention to a lower level in a room; whereas | | | | of the most eccentric charming chandeliers |
| a chandelier is the highest point of a room's | | | | are those designed to represent hot-air |
| decoration. | | | | balloons. The early nineteenth century saw a |
| | | | wave of enthusiasm for hot-air balloons, |
| The type of chandelier which is associated | | | | prompted by the first balloon flight by the |
| with French work is more open with its main | | | | Montgolfier brothers, Michel and Joseph |
| structural support supplied not by chains or | | | | travelling through the air for some six miles |
| a stem but rather by a cage or frame with | | | | in 1783. Some Montgolfier chandeliers are |
| prettily curved arms, often gilded and with | | | | French others Italian. |
| candles or drops in the centre space. Like | | | | |
| English chandeliers, they have pendants and | | | | One of the things you need to be absolutely |
| chains of drops. | | | | sure of is that your chandelier is safe; that |
| | | | when it is installed it will stay up, it |
| The difference is that instead of being | | | | won't shed pieces on your head and it won't |
| massed together, they are however spaced | | | | electrocute anyone or burn the house down. |
| further apart so that they can be seen | | | | |
| individually. The effect is extremely | | | | If you bought you chandelier from a brocante |
| delicate and ornate without being elaborate. | | | | or a market you should use common sense about |
| | | | its wiring. Any chandelier is only as good as |
| The ironwork on French chandeliers by the | | | | safe electrically speaking as the circuit of |
| 1900s was superbly refined and attractive. | | | | which it is part. Have it tested by an |
| The stem might have leaves and stalks curling | | | | electrician and rewired if in doubt. |