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The Lyels-Ford II Chandelier
Project type
MGW rebuilt a 170 year old historic venetian chandelier that was destroyed during an unfortunate accident.
The chandelier was originally built in Murano Italy and owned by Henry Ford II. It's current owner resides in the Carmel Highlands where this piece resides as the signature statement work over the space often used for featured entertaining, like the four piece string performance celebrating the piece's re-installation (shown).
Date
June 2022
Location
Carmel CA
The home owner asked for a restoration of a 150+ year old venetian classic once owned by Henry Ford II.
This original chandelier was created in Murano Italy in 1850. Its providence traces ownership through Henry Ford II, ultimately to its current owner residing in Carmel Highlands of California.
The chandelier was nearly entirely destroyed in a cleaning mishap. After a previously unsuccessful attempt to restore the work in Italy, the owner provided detailed images of the original work, and all of the shattered components of the original chandelier and asked MGW to research and recreate the important work.
MGW photographed and identified each component of the original chandelier. We researched how each shape and tool mark might have been made back in 1850 with the assistance of Wave Murano (an historic venetian glassblowing studio) and Corning's Museum of Glass' Rackow library.
From there we used modern digital tools (Rhino3d, CNC) to recreate tools to make the marks made by original 1850's
tools and through trial and error were able to accurately recreate the 70% of component pieces that were destroyed in the mishap.
We are tremendously proud to have played a role in the life of this important work.
