Gilt Metal Chandelier, 2 Tiers, 12 Lights, in the Manner of Maison Baguès, circa 1940

Of impressive stature, this twelve-light, two-tier chandelier in gilt metal recalls the sumptuous decorative vocabulary that made Maison Baguès the most celebrated Parisian house for ornamental lighting in the Art Déco era. The two registers of candle-arms are arranged in carefully controlled symmetry around a central column, the upper tier spreading outward before the lower tier descends in an elegant arc, together creating a silhouette of generous presence — 75 cm in diameter and nearly a metre in height. The gilded metal surfaces, luminous in the manner of the house’s signature finish, animate the piece with the warmth and brilliance that elevated the Baguès chandelier above all others in fashionable Parisian interiors of the period.

Maison Baguès was established in Paris in the latter decades of the nineteenth century and rose to become the foremost French house specialising in gilt-metal decorative lighting. Under successive generations of the Baguès family, the firm developed a distinctive style characterised by elaborate naturalistic metalwork — flowers, leaves, branches and scrollwork rendered in ormolu and patinated bronze of exceptional technical refinement. Baguès chandeliers were among the most coveted commissions available to an interior decorator between the 1900s and 1960s, finding their way into grand private apartments, luxury liners and five-star hotels, and being specified by leading decorators including Elsie de Wolfe and the great French maisons such as Jansen. The house’s Art Déco production of the 1930s and 1940s retained the naturalistic richness of the Belle Époque heritage while adapting it to the cleaner, more architectural lines of the period.

This chandelier, worked throughout in gilt metal in the Baguès manner, presents well for its age, the gilding retaining the luminous warmth characteristic of the finest Parisian production of the interwar decades. At 75 cm in diameter and 99 cm in total height, it is a fixture of genuine presence, suited to a grand salon, a large dining room or a distinguished entrance hall. Whether considered a period collectible or integrated into a contemporary interior seeking Parisian grandeur, this important chandelier carries the authority of the finest French decorative tradition.