Good Friday is the most solemn day of the Christian calendar. It's the day when Christians contemplate and memorialize the condemning, torture, crucifixion and death of Jesus. Although the day is a dark one for Christians, it also marks the last hours before the great triumph, Christ's resurrection.
Shown above is a pair of German Jugendstil wrought iron candelabra. Made in the early Twentieth Century by Hugo Berger, they display the stark (but beautiful) aesthetic of honest handcraft. Wrought iron bars, some of them scalloped, support five candle cups. Pierced steel provides a stylized, floral inset. A softly faceted, hammered foot plate catches the light. And the dark patination gives the piece a centuries-old appearance.
Hugo Berger opened his foundry in Schmalkalden, Germany in 1895. He produced hand-wrought metal works—mostly iron and brass—in the old, traditional manner. Inspired by the Art Nouveau Movement (called Jugendstil in Germany), his works found a domestic, German audience as well as customers throughout Europe and England. Berger's metalworks were stocked at Liberty of London and in some American stores.
The shopmark, "Goberg" is a contraction of the metalsmith's first and last names: HuGO BERGer.
Click on the photo above to learn more about these handsome candelabra.
Though our Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed, LEO Design is still alive and well! Please visit our on-line store where we continue to sell Handsome Gifts (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
We also can be found in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania at The Antique Center of Strabane (www.antiquecenterofstrabane.com).
Or call to arrange to visit our Pittsburgh showroom (by private appointment only). 917-446-4248