ATTRIBUTED TO PARKER AND PERRY, CIRCA 1780

William Parker (d.1784) founded his company in Fleet Street in the early 1760s, possibly by means of taking over the established business of Jerom Johnson, and was among the most prominent manufacturers of glass chandeliers, girandoles and candelabra in the second half of the 18th century. The business flourished, with many prestigious commissions such as for the New Assembly Rooms, Bath, for William Beckford, and for the Dukes of Devonshire for both Chatsworth, circa 1782-3, and later at Devonshire House, London in the 1820's and 1830's. Between 1783 and 1786 Parker supplied chandeliers to the Prince of Wales for Carlton House, London, at a cost of nearly £2500. In 1817 Parker's son entered into formal partnership with the Perry family (they eventually merged to become Perry & Co. in 1820) and continued to enjoy success. In 1835 George Perry boasted 'We trust that our having made the greater part of the lustres for the late King, and our being now employed in making those for the new Palace of his present Majesty (William IV), will be some guarantee for the character of our Manufacture.'

The candelabra correspond closely to neo classical patterns that were manufactured and promoted in the 1780s by William Parker, in particular in drawings or instructional diagrams for assembly that were supplied by, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (see Martin Mortimer, The English Glass Chandelier, Woodbridge, 2000, pp. 94 - 110). The glass pattern relates to that of a pair of Wedgwood candelabra that are likely to have been supplied to Queen Charlotte, who decorated a room at Frogmore, Windsor with scenes in the manner of Lady Templetown's 'paper cuts' published by Tomkins in 1790 (A. Kelly, Decorative Wedgwood, London, 1965, fig. 74; and J. Cornforth, 'Frogmore House - I', Country Life, 16 August 1990, p. 50).

A related pair of candelabra with jasper bases, possibly supplied to the Sturt family for Crichel, Dorset was sold Christie's, London, 23 May 2013, lot 155 (£21,250 including premium).