French Transition Hall Lantern

A large five-light hall lantern with five arms and curved, cut-glass panels set in a gilt bronze framework decorated with floral and architectural ornaments. The vertical supports terminate in foliate buds and are embellished with fluted column bases and garlands. They are surmounted by delicate ram's head designs. The accolade-shaped horizontal supports are also decorated with foliate ornaments. The frame of the convex glass panels is connected to five S-curve supports of gilt bronze, which meet in a small ring under the suspension eye. The interior with five arms and drip pans on a stem terminating in a pine cone finial, is of a later date.

During most of the eighteenth century, lanterns were used in the entrance hall and in draughty corridors. Around 1760, however, they also began to be featured in smaller rooms such as walk-in closets and bedrooms