Silvered Mercury Glass Candlesticks, British Colonial Style, 1999

Pair of mercury glass silvered candlesticks. Silvered mercury glass is mouth-blown double walled, then silvered between the layers with a liquid silvering solution. The silvering is a heated solution of silver nitrate and grape sugar. The rough bottom scar, left when the glass is knocked from the pontil rod was often covered with copper discs or corked. Silvered mercury glass, an early example of art glass, was known as “poor man’s silver” in England in the mid-19th century. Pair of antiqued look mercury glass candlesticks, circa 1999. Dimensions: 12 in. H × 4.5 in. diameter.