Candlestick, one of a pair

Given by King George IV to his mistress Elizabeth, Lady Conyngham, this pair of candlesticks stands at the very beginning of the Gothic revival period in silver. The outstanding English sculptor Flaxman, who also made designs for neo-classical and Renaissance revival silver, in fact, carefully adapted Gothic elements - such as the openwork foliage and the four cast frogs at the nodi - and integrated them into a system of proportions, which is deeply informed by classical and Renaissance architecture and art.