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Price category: 2,500 - 5,000 usd / eur

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Although electricity has relegated candleholders to decorative use, interior designers continue to favour candelabra for their cosy light and eye-catching appearance. Josef Frank modernized the classic candelabra by eliminating the base in the middle, placing the branches directly on the tabletop.

The Austrian designer and architect may be best known for his vivid textiles for Swedish firm Svenskt Tenn, but his artistic touch reached far beyond textiles and created iconic objects such as these candelabra. Each candelabrum has nine arms arranged on two levels and a single one at the end of the column. There are two truly distinctive features that defines this model: the base composed of four slim, splayed legs, and the adjustability of the arms. The former distinguishes this model from all other Frank pieces, but also from all other mid-century models thanks to its uniqueness. The legs have a light curve that mimics the arms’ curvature creating a light base for the design. The second feature makes the candelabra highly customizable as the nozzles allow the arms to be moved both on the horizontal and vertical axis. The elaborate brass structures feature nine brass cups that have so-called chambersticks, small pans to catch dripping wax. Even without lit candles, the bodies themselves spread a soft glow thanks to their bright brass material.

The Austrian designer and architect, Josef Frank was the most prestigious designer at the Stockholm-based design company, Svenskt Tenn (Swedish Pewter), recruited by the founder of the company, Estrid Ericson herself. Svenskt Tenn hired Josef Frank in 1934, and from then on, he designed the most recognizable candelabra models of the era.

Condition:

In good vintage condition. Wear consistent with age and use. The brass has a beautiful patina with some marks.

Dimensions:

13.38 in Ø x 13.77 in H

34 cm Ø x 35 cm H

About the designer:

Josef Frank (July 15, 1885 – January 8, 1967) was an Austrian-born architect, artist, and designer who adopted Swedish citizenship in the latter half of his life. Together with Oskar Strnad, he created the Vienna School of Architecture, and its concept of Modern houses, housing, and interiors.

Josef Frank was one of early Vienna modernism’s foremost figures, but already in the beginning of the 1920s he started to question modernism’s growing pragmatism. He had little appreciation for the French architect Le Corbusier’s belief that a house should be “a machine for living in”. He was against puritanical principles and on the contrary, feared that standardized interiors would make people all too uniform. Josef Frank represented a freer, more artistic style ideal, and he developed his own type of modernism where values like comfort, hominess, and a wealth of colour were at its core. He resisted limitations and models for his furniture and textiles came from across all boundaries both in time and space.

Josef Frank began working at Svenskt Tenn in 1934 and just a few years later, the Frank-Ericson duo made their international breakthrough. Svenskt Tenn’s exhibition room at the World Expositions in Paris in 1937 and New York in 1939 was completely contrary to the ideal of the time with its bold contrasts in materials, colours, and prints. The duo received a great deal of attention and became, somewhat paradoxically, the model for the expression “Swedish Modern”. Although he was already 50 years old when he left Vienna for Sweden, Frank is considered one of Sweden’s most important designers.