There are facts, figures and interesting stories about pretty much everything in life, and chandeliers are no different (honestly!), so this is why we have rummaged around the Internet and found some things that we find interesting, and hopefully, you will as well!
World’s Largest Chandelier
According to the Guinness World Records website, the largest chandelier in the world is located in Qatar and owned by Ali Bin Khalifa Al Hitmi & Co. It weighs in at an impressive 18,000 KG, and consists of a pheromonal 165,000 LED units to make it quite literally light up, and was installed in June 2010. It was designed by a designer in Scotland called Beau McClellan and took two years from start to finish, before it was shipped over and installed for this property developer.
Most Expensive Chandelier
Based on chandeliers that have been sold at auction (else it can be quite hard to answer this one) the world’s most expensive chandelier was a Givenchy Royal Hanover German Silver 8 light chandelier made by William Kent way back in 1736. It sold for just over $9 million at Christies in London in 2017, and was initially valued at between $4 and $6 million before it was sold for this record breaking amount on an evening in July. Of course, you can find more affordable antique crystal chandeliers through retailers like http://roccoborghese.com/crystal-chandeliers/borghesina-classica/, but generally, $9 million or more will buy you the most expensive one on record (if they will sell!).
First Used Chandeliers
Although very different to what we class a chandelier as now, the first form or existence of a chandelier was thought to be in the Middle Ages. They were originally basic wooden cross sections that held candles. And indeed, this is how the name came about, as the word Chandelier is from the French word Chandelabre, which has a literal translation of Candlestick. These days of course they use electricity and bulbs to light up, but way back when times were different, they presented a very different form indeed! However, finding one of these is now quite rare, as many were hung in churches which were destroyed due to the reformation that took part in the 1500’s.
That Only Fools And Horses Scene
You know the one we are talking about, where Del and Rodney are awaiting the drop of the chandelier to be repaired, only for Granddad to release the wrong one.
Rather than buying a real chandelier, they had one made by a props specialist, but even this was still worth £6,000 and only one was ever commissioned, meaning that they had one chance, and one chance only to nail the scene.
And of course, they did, and alongside Del falling through the bar, is probably one of the most iconic and remembered scenes from this program.
