Metallic candlestick and ceramic candlesticks are both popular and commonplace. This pair combines both of those looks: a pair of porcelain candlesticks, glazed in a lustrous, metallic platinum gunmetal. The design also straddle the Classic and the Modernist. They were made in the Twenties by Fraunfelter in Zanesville, Ohio.
Charles Fraunfelter was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1866. His wife's uncle was the president of Roseville Pottery and Charles worked his way up in that company: clerk, secretary, sales manager. In 1915, he (and a group of other business partners) purchased the Ohio Pottery Company and hired Austrian ceramicist, John Herald, to guide design and production. At this point, the company was mostly making stoneware kitchenware items like mixing bowls and other heavy items. In 1918, Fraunfelter expanded into restaurant and cooking wares, attempting to expand the business. Fraunfelter developed the first hard porcelain production in the United States in 1922 (which they called "Petroscan"). This allowed them to develop a line of heat and chemical resistant wares for use in laboratories (which had previously been imported from Germany and had been difficult to obtain during World War One). Charles Fraunfelter died of pneumonia in 1926 at the age of 60. The company struggled during the Depression and closed for good in 1939.
The candlesticks above are handsome and durable. They sit well in a Modernist or more traditional setting. Click on the photo above to learn more about them.
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