Empire Style Montgolfière Chandelier in Bronze and Crystal with Arrows and Swan Necks, French Work, circa 1940

Of a grandeur and symbolic richness that immediately declare their Napoleonic lineage, this montgolfière chandelier in bronze and crystal is a masterpiece of the French Empire revival style as interpreted by the ateliers of the 1940s. The "montgolfière" form — so named for its evocation of the hot-air balloon that the brothers Montgolfier first sent aloft in 1783, a feat that captivated the imagination of the Empire period — takes the form of a spherical armature in burnished bronze from which crystal drops cascade in gleaming profusion. The decorative programme is richly emblematic: arrows, those attributes of Eros and of martial glory that Napoleon's designers elevated to leitmotifs of the imperial aesthetic, alternate with swan necks — the col de cygne, that supremely graceful curve that recurs throughout Empire furniture and lighting as an emblem of elegance touched by mythology.

The Empire style, created at the dawn of the nineteenth century to celebrate and legitimise Napoleon's imperial ambitions, drew on the formal vocabulary of Republican Rome, Pharaonic Egypt, and Homeric Greece, melding these sources into a decorative language of exceptional authority and coherence. The swan, sacred bird of Apollo, and the arrow, weapon of the gods, were among its most potent symbols. When French craftsmen of the 1940s returned to this language — as they frequently did under the influence of designers like Maison Jansen and the great bronziers of the period — they brought to it the material quality and technical mastery of a tradition that had never been interrupted.

Imposing in its proportions and ravishing in its effect when illuminated, this chandelier would bring to any grand dining room, entrance hall, or salon the full authority of the French imperial tradition. Its bronze patina and crystal elements are in excellent condition, making it a ready-to-install piece of the highest decorative distinction.