123. A pair of table chandeliers, late 18th century/circa 1800, probably St Petersburg, for three candles each, Black Rattan Porphyry from Elfdals Porphyrverk.

Mounts of burnt-gilt bronze and brass, encircled with differently-cut prisms, square base, foot with laurel wreath, urn-shaped corpus, S-shaped light arms with drop trays in the shape of sunflowers, leaf-holstered candlesticks, upturned arches hung with chains of different-cut prisms, leaf-holstered pillar crowned with plume and triangular obelisk with trailing plume, height 76 cm

PROVENANCE: Purchased by Olof Olsson, Berga gård, Österåker parish, allegedly after frilord Mattias Palbitski (1782-1851) at auction at Julita Manor, Julita parish, Södermanland county.

LITERATURE: Igor Sychev: The Russian Chandeliers 1760-1830, St. Petersburg 2003, page 49f, compare table chandeliers; page 58, details of candlesticks and mountings
Elsebeth Welander-Berggren, ed.: Porphyry - the Royal Stone, Stockholm 2016, pages 57 & 122, no 38, compare Gustavian candlesticks in Rännåporphyry

UNPRINTED SOURCES: Svea Hovrett, Adliga probate records, SE/RA/420422/01/E IX b/282 (1851), image: C0100890_00042, relating to Mattias Palbitski's estate listing; “In Friherlinnans Förmak. 2 Candlesticks made of porphyry”

On the occasion of the death of Frilord Mattias Palbitski in 1851, the lordly court was terminated on the sword's side. Through her paternal grandmother Lady Anna Sutherland-Duffus (1714-1795), daughter of Russian Vice-Admiral Kenneth Sutherland, there was a natural connection with Russia. In the estate listing after Mattias Palbitski, “2 Ljusstakar af porphyry” is taken up “I Friherlinnans Förmak” at Julita.

The table lights have been used at numerous weddings within the family in Österåkers parish in 1884, 1909, 1922 and 1948. In a succession at the end of the 1950s, the lusters were divided between the heirs and now the couple have been reunited.