Late Medieval Copper-Alloy Socket Candlestick

A finely proportioned late medieval copper-alloy socket candlestick, attributed to the Southern Netherlands, probably Flanders, circa 1500.

The candlestick stands upon a broad circular base with a shallow moulded perimeter, rising through a truncated conical centre to a tall and exceptionally slender stem. The stem is articulated by a carefully ordered succession of discoid collars and baluster-shaped knops separated by elongated cylindrical sections, terminating in a moulded cylindrical candle socket.

Of particular significance are the rectangular apertures pierced through the socket, a characteristic associated with a distinct group of late Gothic copper-alloy candlesticks produced in the Low Countries. These apertures allowed the remains of a spent candle to be extracted from the socket and provide an important diagnostic feature when comparing surviving examples.

The arrangement of the stem is equally characteristic of the period. Its sharply delineated discoid mouldings remain distinct from the intervening baluster forms, creating a strongly architectural vertical profile. The combination of these Gothic elements with the increasingly regular, lathe-like symmetry of the stem places the candlestick convincingly around the transition from the 15th to the 16th century.