With its ornate brass and painted porcelain features, this candelabrum’s primary purpose is decoration, not illumination. By the time it was made, improved forms of lighting like oil lamps and electric lights were available.
When new technology is invented, the devices replaced don’t immediately disappear. This candelabrum is marked with “1887.” If that is the year it was made, candles had not been the predominant form of indoor lighting for a long time.
In 1782, Aime Argand patented a lamp that had a hollow wick and burned any fluid oil. New types of oil lamps and fuels to use with them, like whale oil, turpentine, ke…
