A HIGHLY IMPORTANT RUSSIAN CHANDELIER ATTRIBUTED TO JOHANN ZEKH
REF: FA1232
A highly impressive, eighteen light ormolu mounted and cut glass chandelier. The turquoise opalescent baluster stem with foliated mounts supporting a reed corona and the central vase issuing six arms supporting spiralled obelisks. The finely chased main guilloche band incased with prismatic spangles, issuing twelve arms, each supporting notch cut spires surmounted by small reed sprays terminating with incased prism and demi-lune cascades. Six of these arms issuing a further three scroll arms supporting foliate drip pans, candle nozzles and ball bead savealls. The chandelier draped and hung with the finest quality pear drops and finials.
- Height 137.11 cm / 54 "
- Diameter 114.26 cm / 45 "
- Period 1750-1799
- Year 1790
- Country Russian
- Provenance Private Swiss collection
- Literature Johann Zekh of St. Petersburg. A native of Geman origin, Zekh established his workshop in the Russian capital in 1795, where he appears listed in the records of the guild of bronziers. By the late 1790s, his name became synonymous with the creation of the most outstanding chandeliers in Russia, noted in the St. Petersburg Journal as one of the greatest masters of the speciality. The chandelier shares many of the same components as the other examples by Zekh the crystal 'fountain' to the upper section; the tier of finely-cut triangular stems surmounted by small cascades; the central rosette contained within a demi-lune; the crystal garlands hanging from the lower corona; and perhaps most strikingly, the finely-chased ormolu sections with foliate motifs, so characteristic of Zekh's oeuvre. The central shaft, which delicately combines a large turquoise glass vase with exquisite colourless cut-glass pendants, is comparable to the shaft of the magnificent chandeliers delivered to Count Nikolai Petrovitxh Cheremetev for his palace of Fontanka, in St. Petersburg (now in Ostankino Palace). Examples can be found page 30 The Russian chandelier, lamps of the classical era 1760-1830, this showing a pair of similar chandeliers hung in the Ostankino Palace, Moscow.
