This 1950s Swedish hanging candelabra was designed by Gunnar Ander for Ystad Metall, the brass works based in Ystad in southern Sweden. Four brass arms rise from a polished sphere, each ending in a flower-shaped cup of cobalt-blue glass that holds a single taper candle.
Ander worked for Ystad Metall from the 1950s and became its leading designer, shaping candlesticks, candelabra and lamps in clean geometric forms. Brass combined with coloured glass is a recurring pairing in the Ystad Metall candle holders attributed to him, and this model is one of the more playful examples of an otherwise functionalist body of work.
The arms curve in a double S, so the four glass cups sit at slightly different heights and the silhouette stays open and a little asymmetrical. The outside of each cup is moulded in overlapping scallops and small beads, which break up the flame and the daylight in the deep blue. The brass has the soft, warm patina of age, most visible on the sphere below the arms, and a beaded brass chain carries the whole piece from a hook.
Hung over a dining table, in a hallway or in front of a window, it works as a light, sculptural object rather than a conventional chandelier. It is a single vintage example with its own marks of age, not a reproduction.
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