Stikla lustra no Asares evaņģēliski luteriskās baznīcas kā viens no angļu stikla lustru tipa piemēriem Latvijā
Glass Chandelier from Asare Evangelical Lutheran Church as an Example of English-type Chandeliers in Latvia

Summary/Abstract: The glass chandelier from Asare Evangelical Lutheran Church is one of the few examples of English-style glass chandeliers that have come down to us in Latvia. The chandelier was probably made in Bohemia in the early 19th century. It is a single-level chandelier with a framework supporting glass arms with twelve candles. The upper part of the chandelier is enhanced by a glass canopy with small strings of glass beads. A peculiar element of the chandelier’s composition is a basket formed by rings filled with quadrangular glass beads and hung in glass bead strings. Today the chandelier is located in Rundāle Palace Museum. It received this object from the elder of the Asare Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1975. The museum’s restorer Maija Baņķiere (1938–2021) carried out the restoration works. The chandelier is now exhibited in the First Study of the Duke in Rundāle Palace. Production of glass-arm chandeliers developed almost simultaneously in England, Bohemia and Venice but those made in England are considered as technically most perfect and artistically valuable. Their period of flourishing lasted from the 1770s up to the turn of the 19th century. English chandeliers had a different selection of glass adornments and their decorative finish, largely determined by the technical options provided by the source material of lead glass (crystal). English chandeliers are typified by the particularly expressive and rich decorative cut of glass details. The boom of English glass chandeliers coincided with Classicism as the dominant art style in Europe and with the fashion for all things English, seen at first in France, then in Germany and later also in Russia. During the 18th century, the entire territory of present-day Latvia was gradually annexed to the Russian Empire; therefore, prevailing trends in architecture and decorative arts were largely derived from the processes in Russia. The craze for all things English is related to the reign of Empress Catherine the Great (Екатерина II, 1729–1796). English culture was also attractive for her long-term favourite Prince Grigory Potemkin (Григо́рий Потёмкин-Таври́ческий, 1739–1791) who purchased several objects of decorative art from the Englishwoman Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston (1721–1788). Two glass chandeliers made in England in the 1770s were among these items. Three English glass chandeliers made in the 1790s were also located in Count Alexander Stroganov’s (Александр Строганов, 1734–1811) palace in St. Petersburg. One could order chandeliers directly from England or buy them in the English goods stores in St. Petersburg. Individual details of glass chandeliers such as beads or glass arms were also exported from England to Russia. Chandeliers assembled in Russia from these imported parts were also known as English chandeliers or the fashionable chandeliers with English glass-beaded strings. English-style chandeliers were also crafted in Bohemia. They were exported not only to different European countries but to England as well. Bohemian-made chandeliers were cheaper and conquered the market quickly. The so-called Northern German lands, including the present-day Latvia, were among the most favourite customers of Bohemian glass items since ancient times. The glass chandelier from Asare Evangelical Lutheran Church is a Bohemian-made English-style piece as well. Its composition and decorative cut of glass details is typical of English glass chandeliers. Particularly English in style are the upper canopy-shaped details and the vase-like, richly cut details strung on the stem of the chandelier. However, the quality of glasswork and the material itself is lower in comparison with chandeliers made in England. Also, the arm plate from which the glass light-bearing arms branch out is made of wood in line with the Bohemian tradition.The landed nobility residing on the territory of present-day Latvia in the second half of the 18th and the early 19th century had little interest in English culture, including the decorative arts. A rare exception was Christoph Johann Friedrich von Medem, also known as Jeannot Medem (1763–1838) who travelled to England and ordered various decorative art objects there. Whether he also bought some English glass chandeliers remains unknown. There is no information that the Asare landlords who were patrons of Asare Evangelical Lutheran Church were interested in England and its decorative arts. The present stone building of Asare Church was built in 1820, financed by the Asare landlord of the time Ernst Christian von Holtey (1761–?). The church interior had retained several 18th century furnishing items. The interior was also supplemented later in the 19th and early 20th century. The Asare Church inventory list drawn up in December 1888 mentions a chandelier as well. Also, the technical condition certificate of the architectural monument prepared by the Architecture Board of the Latvian SSR Council of Ministers in 1952 includes “a glass chandelier – 12 arms”. One can assume this is the same English-style chandelier that was received by the Rundāle Palace Museum from the parish elder in 1975. The dating of the chandelier allows us to assume it was mounted immediately after the completion of Asare Church in the 1820s. The chandelier could have been ordered specially for the needs of the church, or, alternatively, it could have been a chandelier from the manor house that had served its time and was now outdated. This could have happened, for example, in the mid-19th century when the new landlord of Asare Guido von Walther-Wittenheim (1813–1884) reconstructed the manor house and improved the church interior. The English-style glass chandelier probably did not end up in Asare Church because someone deliberately and purposefully followed English late 18th to early 19th century traditions of decorative art. However, it is an example of 18th century English-style chandeliers in a small rural church and evidence of the European-wide fascination with English culture and its decorative arts, purchased and imitated elsewhere too.

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