RootsChat.Com

Some Special Interests => Occupation Interests => Topic started by: rbell35 on Tuesday 21 August 18 06:24 BST (UK)

Title: Chandelier Shops -Bolbec Upper Normandy 16th Century
Post by: rbell35 on Tuesday 21 August 18 06:24 BST (UK)
My ancestor Nicolas LE CARON was a chandelier seller during the middle 1500s in Bolbec Upper Normandy France. According to Huguenot records he had a shop somewhere in Bolbec. I am interested to learn about what these shops were like & what sort of status was given to these shops & chandeliers in general at this time. Thanks chrs Rob
Title: Re: Chandelier Shops -Bolbec Upper Normandy 16th Century
Post by: Mowsehowse on Tuesday 21 August 18 08:35 BST (UK)
I once read that chandeliers made in Murano, were shipped to their destination suspended in closed barrels of water, to save them from damage en route.

Obviously you would need the space to display them..... and given the nature of a complex chandelier I imagine only the wealthy could afford to buy them.

Perhaps smaller chandeliers could be displayed in a shop, but surely the larger ones would be selected from a pattern book and made to order? Or perhaps the client's interior designer would make a drawing that would be sent to a glass works to be made up.
Title: Re: Chandelier Shops -Bolbec Upper Normandy 16th Century
Post by: djm297 on Tuesday 21 August 18 10:21 BST (UK)
"Un Chandelier " is French for" a candlestick", but I think a chandelier as we understand it in English is "un lustre"-did he sell candlesticks rather than chandeliers...this would have been a more common occupation in a small town?

djm297
Title: Re: Chandelier Shops -Bolbec Upper Normandy 16th Century
Post by: AngelaR on Tuesday 21 August 18 11:18 BST (UK)
I agree djm297 - living in France at looking at lighting arrangements recently, I fell foul of that particular linguistic "false friend". Lustre is indeed the word for chandelier as the English understand it!
Title: Re: Chandelier Shops -Bolbec Upper Normandy 16th Century
Post by: Skoosh on Tuesday 21 August 18 13:33 BST (UK)
More likely to be brass?

Skoosh.
Title: Re: Chandelier Shops -Bolbec Upper Normandy 16th Century
Post by: Mowsehowse on Tuesday 21 August 18 16:41 BST (UK)
"Un Chandelier " is French for" a candlestick", but I think a chandelier as we understand it in English is "un lustre"-did he sell candlesticks rather than chandeliers...this would have been a more common occupation in a small town?  djm297 

Sounds like a much more profitable business as everyone would have needed them, and they would be made at a wide range of prices.