Black Round Metal Spike Candle Holder Pillar Candle Plate

Product Information

A ceramic version of the 1770s in the British Museum provides dating evidence ( 1921,1215.139.CR). Three loops from saucer-type candle-holders, with breaks where they were joined to the saucer marked. From left: HAMP-0AA051, LVPL-600557, SWYOR-B13D83. Ejectors Some ejector handles can be oval, sometimes inscribed with initials. Others are simple knobs, which can be hard to recognise. The most recognisable ones, and the commonest on the PAS database, have an openwork trefoil of three circular loops. For toy candle-holders, use TOY (and put ‘candle holder’ in the classification field). PAS object classifications to use Zoomorphic copper-alloy candle-holders are come in two variants. One is quite naturalistic, but the other (the Geraardsbergen type) is a tripod form where the three legs are formed into the shapes of animal heads and front legs.

Examples on the PAS database include fragments of shaft SF-DB9EE4, KENT-CA9970 and IOW-5D55C5. No detached legs have yet been identified.

SUBSCRIBE

Roger Brownsword, a metallurgist with an interest in candle-holders, was of the opinion that most cast copper-alloy candle-holders of 14th-century or earlier date were made on the Continent and imported into England ( Brownsword 1985, 1) which might explain their rarity. Further research is needed to confirm this hypothesis. Saucer-type candle-holders were certainly in use in the 17th century, when they had flat projecting handles like little frying pans; we do not have any of this type yet identified on the PAS database, but there is a mid 18th century illustration of one in the British Museum. There are two similar copper-alloy candle-holders in the collection of the Museum of London, both with four instead of three legs; no. 1501 and no. 32.2/16. Bases from late medieval or early post-medieval candle-holders (c. 1450-1700 AD) were made separately, and are not nearly so easy to recognise or to date precisely. Brownsword (1985) does give some useful hints on dating bases, but fragments will always be difficult. In addition, fragments of candle-holder base may be difficult to tell apart from fragments of bell, or of the bases of small vessels such as ewers or chafing dishes. Three candle-holders with surviving bases, all of late medieval or early post-medieval date. Left to right: LIN-249D46, SWYOR-4DC433, SOMDOR-9F8701. Later post-medieval candle-holders Many of the candle-holders recorded on the PAS database are small, flimsy objects which were probably used for travelling, and thus have become accidentally lost.

A second, very distinctive type of tripod folding candle-holder was made in Limoges. They have three separately made curved legs, with loops at one end which are threaded onto the bottom of the candle-holder’s shaft. These were either spread out to support the candle-holder while standing, or swung round to make a more compact shape for travelling or storage. The legs are decorated with enamelled pseudo-heraldic devices, and several have been recorded on the PAS database; see SF-417281 for a list. Put ‘Limoges style’ in the Classification field. One was found in a 16th-century context in London ( Egan 2005, 81, no. 337) and another in a pit with early 16th century pottery in Winchester ( Rees et al 2008, no. 1799). Two Norwich finds came from the levels of the 1507 fire ( Margeson 1993, 83-4, nos. 537-8), so a date-range of 1450-1550 seems appropriate. Candle-holders of Bunsen burner type. From left: SOM-619B4B, DEV-AF2114, SWYOR-EC45A9, SF-3DBCE5, LVPL-417C75 (cast in one piece). 16th- or 17th-century candle-holdersThere are also some less complex examples of adjustable candle-holders, such as the two below, one of which is still movable. The hinge must have been quite tight to stop the candle-holder collapsing while in use. A screw thread on the shaft of the ejector helps to identify an object as an ejector, but if this is missing then the general shape of the object and its size (15-25mm wide) can help. The holes tend to be bevelled on one face and with right-angled edges on the other, and there is often a short flaring collar between the trefoil and the shaft.

This guide only covers metal candle-holders; details of how to record ceramic candle-holders can be found in the guide to Ceramics. Medieval candle-holders come in several highly standardised forms. Unfortunately there are a lot of folding or collapsible candle-holders, and several which have a tripod foot, and more than one zoomorphic type. It is therefore useful to have standard terms in the Classification field for the commoner types.Bangs suggests that the trefoil type of ejector dates from the second half of the 17th century onwards ( Bangs 1995, 145-146, 326; no. 121) but they seem to have become more common in the 18th century. Ejector handles from late 17th- or 18th-century candle-holders, all of openwork trefoil type except for one. From left: DOR-F8C076, NLM-074D4A, BH-C623B4, SUSS-AA9D95, WMID-6FAB26. Toy candle-holders When Alfred and his father Æthelwulf travelled to Rome in the 850s, among their gifts to the Pope was “a gilded silver candle-holder in the Saxon style”. So early-medieval candle-holders did apparently exist, but we don’t have any yet recorded on the PAS database. Perhaps they were all as large as this one in Essen Cathedral, made c. 1000 AD. Medieval candle-holders Examples of candle-holders with a triangular tripod base include NMS-DC4BF7. Examples of those with a circular tripod base include LON-6C500D (a lead-alloy example with a religious inscription) and PUBLIC-C37065 (which is thought to be a French import, following Egan 1998, 149-50). Two circular tripod candle-holders (left, KENT-28DF24; right, LON-6C500D). Note the wide aperture on KENT-28DF24. Good images of a triangular tripod candle-holder proved hard to find. Zoomorphic (including the Geraardsbergen type)