A chandelier /ˌʃæn.dəlˈɪər/ is a decorative ceiling-mounted light fixture.[1] Chandeliers are often ornate, and normally use lamps. Crystal chandeliers have more or less complex arrays of crystal prisms to illuminate a room with refracted light.
Adam style – A neoclassical style, light, airy and elegant chandelier – usually English.
Arm – The light-bearing part of a chandelier also sometimes known as a branch.
Arm plate -The metal or wooden block placed on the stem, into which the arms slot.
Bag Chandelier – A bag of crystal drops formed by strings hanging from a circular frame and looped back into the center underneath, associated especially with early American crystal and regency style crystal chandeliers.
Baluster Chandelier – A turned wood or molded stem forming the axis of a chandelier, with alternating narrow and bulbous parts of varying widths.
Bead Chandelier – A glass drop with a hole drilled right through.
Bobeche – A dish fitted just below the candle nozzle, designed to catch drips of wax. Also known as a drip pan.
Branch – Another name for the light-bearing part of a chandelier, also known as an arm.
Candelabra – Not to be confused with chandeliers, candelabras are candlesticks, usually branched, designed to stand on tables, or if large, the floor.
Candlebeam – A cross made from two wooden beams with one or more cups and prickets at each end for securing candles.
Candle nozzle – The small cup into which the end of the candle is slotted
Canopy – An inverted shallow dish at the top of a chandelier from which festoons of beads are often suspended, lending a flourish to the top of the fitting.
Cage – An arrangement where the central stem supporting arms and decorations is replaced by a metal structure leaving the centre clear for candles and further embellishments.
Corona – Another term for crown-style chandelier
Crown – A circular chandelier reminiscent of a crown, usually of gilded metal or brass, and often with upstanding decorative elements.
Crystal Glass – with a chemical content that gives it special qualities of clarity, resonance and softness, making it especially suitable for cutting. For example lead crystal.
Drip pan – The dish fitted just below the candle nozzle, designed to catch drips of wax. Know also as a bobeche.
Drop – A small piece of glass usually cut into one of many shapes and drilled at one end so that it can be hung from the chandelier with a brass pin. A chain drop is drilled at both ends so that a series can be hung together to form a necklace or festoon.
Dutch – Also known as Flemish, a style of brass chandelier with a bulbous baluster and arms curving down around a low hung ball.
Festoon – An arrangement of glass drops or beads draped and hung across or down a glass chandelier, or sometimes a piece of solid glass shaped into a swag. Also known as a garland.
Finial The final flourish at the very bottom of the stem. Some Venetian glass chandeliers have little finials hanging from glass rings on the arms.
Hoop A circular metal support for arms, usually on a regency-styles or other chandelier with glass pieces. Also known as a ring
Montgolfiere chandelier Chandelier with shape of “montgolfiere”, the early French hot air balloon
Moulded The process by which a glass piece is shaped by being blown into a mould
Neoclassical Style chandelier Glass chandelier featuring many delicate arms, spires and strings of ovals rhomboids or octagons.
Prism A straight, many-sided drop
Regency Style chandelier A larger chandelier with a multitude of drops. Above a hoop rise strings of beads that diminish in size and attach at the top to form a canopy. A bag, with concentric rings of pointed glass, forms a waterfall beneath. The stem is usually completely hidden.
Soda glass A type of glass used typically in Venetian glass chandeliers. Soda glass remains “plastic” for longer when heated, and can therefore be shaped into elegant curving leaves and flowers. Refracts light poorly and is normally fire polished.
Spire A tall spike of glass, round in section or flat sided. To which arms and decorative elements may be attached, made from wood, metal or glass.
Tent A tent shaped structure on the upper part of a glass chandelier where necklaces of drops attach at the top to a canopy and at the bottom to a larger ring.
Venetian A glass from the island of Murano, Venice but usually used to describe any chandelier in Venetian style.
Waterfall or Wedding Cake Concentric rings of icicle drops suspended beneath the hoop or plate.
