Pendant lamp

Hanging electrified candleholder. The first candleholders were found in times before Rome, as candles were invented. Their development is dated to have occurred between mediaeval times, until today, with the difference, however, that the light bulb replaced the candle. The discussed candleholder from the collection of the museum decorates an interior in the Turkish Apartment in the ground floor. The candleholder is made of painted sheet metal and gilded bronze, and stems from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. The body, painted black, in the shape of a conical disc, has ten light points fixed to it, meaning, five arms bent upwards in a meandering shape; they end in wooden sleeves painted white, with candle-shaped light bulbs; five other arms are bent downwards and shaped like twigs ending in blossoms with the light bulbs in the centre. The light bulbs emit light through a tungsten filament that is heated (due to the flow of electricity). Despite the presently broad use of light bulbs, they are not as efficient a light source as one could believe, because only about 5% of the energy (current flow through the filament) is expelled as light, and 95% is emitted as heat. The candleholder is suspended by five decorative chains fixed to the body; at the top, the chains reach a round component with a bulb (an additional light source), decorated with radially arranged leaves, holding the chain to suspend the candleholder.