Description
A beautiful collection of six Mercury Glass candlesticks, England, circa 1840-1855.
Silvered Mercury glass is mouth-blown double walled, then silvered between the layers with a liquid silvering solution. The silvering is a heated solution of silver nitrate and grape sugar. The rough bottom scar, left when the glass was knocked from the pontil rod was often covered with copper discs or corked. Silvered Mercury glass, an early example of art glass, was known as “poor man’s silver” in England in the mid 19th Century.
The collection includes:
Pair: 13.25 in. H. x 6 in. base – with copper bottom caps. Heavy weight.
Pair: 11 in. H. x 4.25 in. Base. Loss of silvering to the bases.
Single: 8.5 in. H x 3.5 in. W
Single: 6.25 in. H x 2.5 in. W
Top openings range approx. 1.25 in. x .50 in in diameter, showing the unfinished Pontil scar on the bottoms.
In very good antique condition with the expected loss to the silvering. The intensity of the silvering varies as is the hand-made nature of Mercury glass.
