Stock No: 11957

A large bronze Greek Revival style five light chandelier the circlet decorated with lion and panther masks and with eternity knots in the chains. The central hanging drum has a circular frieze of repoussé decorated figures derived from the relief carving of horsemen on the west frieze of the Parthenon at the Acropolis, Athens, Greece.
Mid 19th century.

Notes: The original frieze was created circa 438-432 BC and forms part of the Elgin marbles in the British Museum, London. Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin gained permission from the Ottoman rulers of Greece to remove some of the sculptures from the Parthenon while serving as the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1799 to 1803. The marbles were purchased by the then British Government in 1816 to both great acclaim & some controversy and placed in the British Museum.

Link to: Antique chandeliers.