ATTRIBUTED TO MOSES LAFOUNT, CIRCA 1800

Moses Lafount took out a patent in 1796 for his method of attaching glass candle branches to chandeliers and candelabra. The branches were attached to a small brass loop, giving the impression that the entire branch was formed from one long curve of glass. The branches of the present example are fully cut making this model less common than those with moulded branches drawn while hot through a six-lobed opening to give them a ribbed or fluted effect. Seven chandeliers assembled according to the Lafount patent (but apparently unmarked) are in The Athenaeum, Bury St Edmunds. These rooms were refurnished in 1804 and it is likely that they date from this period. An almost identical chandelier to the present example with arm-plates stamped 'Lafount Patent' is illustrated in The English Glass Chandelier (M. Mortimer, The English Glass Chandelier, 2000, p.120, plate 64). Other very similar models are in R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture (volume 1, 1954, p.337, fig.26) and H. Parrott Bacot, Nineteenth Century Lighting, Candle-powered Devices: 1783-1883 (1987, p.238).