A pair of George I style silver plated eight-light chandeliers, circa 1910, probably supplied by Lenygon & Co. in the style of the celebrated model at Knole

Supplied along with five other 8-branch chandeliers to Charles Henry Paget, 6th Marques of Anglesey (1885-1947) for the State Rooms at the principal seat of the Anglesey family, Beaudesert in Staffordshire.

After a fire caused significant damage to Beaudesert on the 5th November 1909 a period of extensive restoration and reconstruction began. The architect James Wyatt had re-modelled the house in 1771-72 (Wyatt was also closely involved with the rebuilding of Plas Newydd), in 1820 Joseph Potter significantly altered the interior. After the fire the 6th Marquess used this opportunity to undo the work of Wyatt and Potter, his vision, was for the house to be in a closer approximation to its original 16th century appearance.

The great house was extravagantly restored with work undertaken by the very best craftsman and suppliers. Interior fittings were sourced, which included a large group of lighting. Including a number of giltwood chandeliers which relate to the work of Lenygon & Co. It is possible that this London company supplied the present chandeliers as well as similar of a smaller form, wall lights in various patterns and light switches cleverly worked with the family coat of arms.

Phillips, Son & Neale, London, Beau Desert, An Inventory, Furniture and Miscellaneous Articles […] for removal to Plas Newydd, 2^nd-5^th May 1921.

'A chased and engraved silvered electrolier for eight lights, with chain suspension’

1 hanging in the Tapestry Bedroom, p.11,

5 hanging in the Long Gallery, p.16,

1 hanging in the Old Study, p.22,

(Bangor University Archives and Special Collections, PN/VIII/5862).

These chandeliers are in a similar style to a pair of chandeliers in the 'Colonnade Rooms' at Knole Park, Kent (cf. H. Avray Tipping, Knole, Kent - The Seat of Lord Sackville, Country Life, 8 June 1912, p.871) which were illustrated in Ralph Edwards &- Percy MacQuoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, 3 vols, first ed., vol.2, p. 5, fig.8. These original chandeliers are still in the possession of the Lords Sackville, and provide evidence that a late 19th or early 20th century maker was copying works in this celebrated house. A copy of the silver mounted mirrors which were hanging in the same room in 1912 is known in a private collection and might consequently be by the same maker.

Country Life first illustrated the interiors at Knole in 1912 (notably illustrating this chandelier). At this time, Knole was also providing rich material for Bloomsbury group authors, contributing to its popularity: Virginia Woolf's Orlando uses the history of the house and its family as the base of its plot, whilst Vita Sackville-West, the only daughter of the 3rd Lord Sackville and a resident of Knole, published the house's history in Knole and the Sackvilles.

A similar chandelier, which featured scrolls and cherubs, was photographed in Lenygon & Co's show rooms at 31 Old Burlington Street, London (Francis Lenygon, The Decoration and Furniture of English Mansions during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, 1909, p.19). Lenygon & Co. were decorators, antique furniture dealers and restorers with premises in London and Paris. They had a number of important clients, including the Duke of Devonshire, the Earl of Pembroke and Lord Leverhulme. They also evidently had knowledge of the interiors of Knole by 1914, when they published the now celebrated silver furniture in the King's Bedroom (cf. Francis Lenygon, Furniture in England from 1660-1760, 1914, p.270, fig. 411).

For comparison with chandeliers in a similar style and of the same period, see those sold, 'The Leverhulme Collection, Thornton Manor, Wirral, Merseyside', Sotheby's, 26-28 June 2001, lots 59-61, and 'The Cowdray Sale, Works of Art from Cowdray Park and Dunecht House', Christie's, 13-15 September 2011, lots 483-484. Interestingly both of the wealthy families who owned these houses acquired items from Lenygon & Co. in the early 20th century.