The present monumental candle holders once flanked a fireplace in the New York residence of acclaimed architect and designer Joseph Urban. Emigrating from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the United States in 1912, Urban is celebrated as a master of American Art Deco interiors, designing such fabled venues as the Rathauskeller, Vienna, the Central Park Casino, New York, fifty-one productions at the Metropolitan Opera, New York and all of Florenz Ziegfeld’s stage sets at the Ziegfeld Theatre, New York. Urban’s prolific output also included furniture for the home.

The present lot displayed in the residence of Mary and Joseph Urban, Yonkers, circa 1920.© Image courtesy Joseph Urban Archive, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University.

The present lot likely originated from one of Urban’s New York productions, possibly designed for a Ziegfeld folly or for an opera at the Met. Silver-plated, the holders extend far beyond the dimensions of candle sticks, standing on the floor, rather than on a table. It is easy to envision the present lot on a vast stage, glistening within an Urban set confection. Urban designed other monumental candelabras for Met operas in the 1920s, including Don Giovanni and Hansel and Gretel. A 1920 photograph, courtesy of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Columbia University, New York reveals the present holders placed prominently in Joseph and Mary Urban’s home in Yonkers, New York.
- Provenance
  Mary and Joseph Urban, Yonkers, New York
- Literature
  Randolph Carter and Robert Reed Cole, Joseph Urban: Architecture, Theatre, Opera, Film, New York, 1992, illustrated p. 110