Late Gothic Copper Alloy Candlestick

A late Gothic candlestick in cast copper alloy, with a slender baluster shaft divided by three knops, rising to a cylindrical socket pierced with twin ejector holes. The shaft is set into a broad drip pan with conical profile above a stepped circular base, designed to catch falling wax and ensure stability.
This type belongs to a distinct group of late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century candlesticks produced in the dinanderie workshops of the Low Countries and Northern France, whose brass and bronze wares were exported widely across Europe. The form is both practical and symbolic: while serving as a durable household or chapel lighting device, it also embodied the Gothic association of light with the presence of Christ.
A closely related example is published in The Lear Collection: A Study of Copper Alloy Socket Candlesticks A.D. 200–1700 by Christopher Bangs (no. 29, p.223). Bangs notes that far fewer candlesticks of this group survive in good condition compared with other coeval forms, likely because the broad, shallow base was more vulnerable to distortion and damage.
The present example, well preserved with a pleasing natural patina, illustrates the refinement of late Gothic metalwork in North-Western Europe at the threshold of the Renaissance.

Provenance: Devon private collection