The Chandelier Showroom

features Swarovski Crystal Chandeliers,
Modern Chandeliers & Wrought Iron Chandeliers

Our Versailles Collection of crystal chandeliers features the most luxuriant decorative lighting available. Many of the chandeliers in this collection feature 24 karat gold and the finest of sterling silver, dressed with Swarovski crystal—hands down, the best in the world. You’ll be amazed at how breathtaking these chandeliers truly are.

The word chandelier means "candle holder" and comes from "chandelle", the french word for candle. Over time, the word "chandelier" began to apply to a light fixture suspended from the ceiling, usually having branch supports and two or more candles or electric lights.

The polycandelon from the Byzantine Empire (circa 6th century) appears to be one of several forerunners of a complex chandelier. It consisted of a number of smaller glass bowls or cones in a bronze or iron frame giving a wide spread of light to any given room.

During the Medieval age, the earliest form or use of chandeliers were little more than a cross-shape formed from two beams of wood with a spike at each end upon which the tallow candle was fixed.

Very few chandeliers of this period have survived.

The first chandeliers in private homes hung only in the palaces and mansions of royalty, the wealthy and powerful.

During this age, apart from taper, oil lamps or the dim glow of firelight were the only means of illumination to read, eat, or entertain after sunset and since chandeliers were largely beyond the means of most, the benefits thereof were not experienced by the masses.

In Dutch and Flemish paintings of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. chandeliers are shown hanging in the homes of the prosperous merchant classes of that time.

The more modest households, with access to the raw materials for candlemaking, might have had chandeliers made from turned wood, bent metal, wrought iron, or tin sheet - the latter being a distinctive feature of pioneering lighting fixtures in america.

Our Contemporary Chandeliers are both artistic and practical in design. Featuring a unique feel that is both subtle and yet, a feel that offers your room environment the ambiance which it has been lacking. These chandeliers come complete in mediums that you want and deserve: like amber tulip glass and brushed nickel plating. Perfect for your study or any part of the house which you deem to be your favorite, this decorative lighting will make any room a productive and relaxing environment.

Mirrors, shining brass plates, and light-breaking rock crystals (quartz) from the earth were used in the earliest candle holders to spread and reflect the light.

Rock crystal were rare, brittle, hard to work with, and very expensive during this period of time.

Pressed glass pieces were used, but these were somewhat dull as they lacked qualities of refraction found in true crystals. The glass was also brittle and could not be cut and shaped like rock crystal and over time, a substitute was sought.

In America and Europe chandeliers were used for lighting. In his Treatise of the English Stage of 1658, Richard Flecknoe (1600-1678), maintains that on May 12, 1669 after a visit to the Lincoln's Inn Field Theatre, where he apparently sat in the second gallery, he complained that the candlelight in the performance nearly ruined his eyesight as the smoke rising from the cheap tallow candles was extremely irritating!

In Paris during the 17th century, theatrical performances were given both in public theatres and at Court. The Palais Royale theatre, where Moliere's plays were presented, was illuminated by six grand chandeliers and by rows of candles at the front of the stage. The scenery was lit from the sides by candles.

In a painting depicting this at the Comedie Francaise Museum, Moliere the actor plays on a stage lit by six chandeliers, each with twelve candles, and thirty-four candles at the front of the stage - a total of a hundred and six candles in the painting alone

In Western Europe it was not until 1676 when an english glass maker, George Ravenscroft, developed a new sort of crystalline glass resembling rock crystal. Lead oxide was added to the glass during the manufacturing process and this made the material soft and highly refractive. This new material was easier to cut and was even more refractive than rock crystal. Though this seemed to be a new discovery at the time in europe, the use of lead oxide to enhance the brilliance of glass was known in mesopotamia in ancient times.

Murano glass blowers started beautiful flowing glass chandeliers around 1700 and continue to produce stunning chandeliers to this day.

Our collection of Wrought Iron Chandeliers is one of our most popular collections. The lighting fixtures in this collection are made with the durability of iron, finished in a variety of colors and textures. With accessories like round-candle lights and decadent lamp shades, we think you’re going to be amazed.

Just 90 years later in the late 1800’s Daniel Swarovski of Austria began a career in stone cutting and crystal manufacturing. Swarovsky patented a machine to cut jewelry stones to perfection. He expanded the use of this technology to include cutting crystal chandelier pieces. He then perfected the process of increasing the purity of leaded glass crystal to a state of flawless brilliance.

In the chandelier's long history, its styles may have changed but no other lamp has shown us so many fanciful form and styles.

After the WWII, the subsequent drive for fresh forms of every element for the domestic interior brought the chandelier back to life, in the work of Italians Gino Sarfatti and Achille Castiglioni and the German Ingo Maurer.

Our current modern day chandelier hero and designer comes in the form of Dale Chihuly who even after being cautioned by everyone to stop designing and making his chandeliers as they were not selling and took up too much of the studio time, persevered until his clientele realized how brilliant and forward thinking there were in design and style.