Bronze Four Light Argand Chandelier

A gilt bronze four light Argand chandelier with acanthus leaf scroll branches c1825.The bronze has it's original finish and has been electrified for use in Australia.

The Argand lamp was invented and patented in 1780 by Aimé Argand. 

The Argand lamp quickly displaced all other varieties of oil lamps and was manufactured in a great variety of decorative forms. They were more costly than the primitive oil lamps of former times because of their increased complexity, so they were adopted first by the well-to-do, but soon spread to the middle class and eventually the less well-off as well. It was the lamp of choice until about 1850 when kerosene lamps were introduced. Kerosene was cheaper than vegetable oil, it produced a whiter flame and as a liquid of low viscosity, it could easily travel up a wick eliminating the need for complicated mechanisms to feed the fuel to the burner.

A disadvantage of the original Argand arrangement was that the oil reservoir needed to be above the level of the burner because the heavy, sticky vegetable oil or whale oil would not rise far up the wick.

The lamp is minus it's reservoire and has replacement glass shades in the original shape.

Dimensions: 112 cm drop x 74 cm