A North German Baroque Amber-mounted and glass-beaded six-light chandelier possibly Bohemian, circa 1690 and later

Overall the chandelier is in good condition; no damage. The embossed brass lower cap with rubbing to gilding and finial of later date. The central spirally moulded stem inside which holds all the elements together is modern. The candle arms and cage encrusted with glass and amber are period, as are the glass and amber. The brass bobeches and nozzles of later date. The glass faceted pendants attached to corona; middle tier and bobeches are of later date. Some glass spheres of the central stem could possibly be original.
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Comparative literature
Käthe Klappenbach, Kronleuchter, Berlin, 2001, p. 80.

The almost identical model discussed by Klappenbach has been produced in Bohemia, circa 1690 and is located in Schloss Favorite near Rastatt, Germany in the bedroom of Markgraf Ludwig George von Baden. An international model at that time and based on Dutch brass models produced earlier in the seventeenth century, the use of amber though in this case point into a more Northern direction.

Amber, a form of tree resin, has been utilized by mankind since pre-historic times to carve beads, charms and religious objects, often imbued with symbolic power. The Greeks knew amber as "elektron" and imported this precious substance from the Baltic region. By the fourteenth century amber guilds had been established along that coast, the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries saw the height of this particular art. The individual pieces were rarely over two inches in length. The two main centers of amber work were Konigsberg, now Kaliningrad, the capital of Prussia and Danzig (Gdansk) in Poland. Amber goods, prized for their skilled workmanship as well as their intrinsic value were ideal diplomatic gifts. The amber room, offered in 1716 as a gift by Friedrich Wilhelm I, King of Prussia to Czar Peter the Great, certainly is the most well-known work of art. Countless plaquettes of amber formed a mosaic applied to twenty-two panels that were installed in 1755 in Ekatarininsky palace outside St. Petersburg.