Girandole 1853 - 1862

This Girandole was made by William F. Shaw, an American artist active around the late nineteenth century. The piece is composed of marble, glass and a non-precious metal alloy, likely cast and then assembled, as a luxury furnishing for the home. It’s really the glass elements that give this piece its impact. Note how the individual rectangular sections are hung to maximize the refraction of light. Their pristine clarity, achieved through skilled glassmaking, adds sparkle and an implicit association with cleanliness. Mass production made such decorative features increasingly affordable to the burgeoning middle classes. The metalwork also warrants attention. It looks hand-finished, but was almost certainly made using molds. This clever combination of hand and machine work allowed makers like Shaw to create the impression of high-end craftsmanship, even as they produced for a rapidly expanding market. This piece shows how taste was democratized in the industrial era, as consumer culture took hold.