With a trefoil form suspension ring, on a baluster stem decorated with gadrooned knops, surmounted with a tooled brass dove ornament with detachable wings, the bulbous central knop issuing twelve 'S' form branches bolted directly to the collar, each with an everted rimmed sconce, foliate castings and dished circular drip pans. Along with the original ceiling boss, 229cm iron chain and serpent-form hooks.

This chandelier is attributed to John Giles, whose trade card is in the collection at the British Museum (museum no. Banks,85.54), which states the items he supplied included 'wrought and plain chandeliers for churches, houses or assembly rooms, finished in ye neatest taste'. It was supplied to Terling Chapel, Essex, circa 1752, when the congregation moved to a modest purpose-built chapel. In Buildings of England: Essex by James Bettley and Nikolaus Pevsner (Yale University Press, 2007), the entry for the United Reformed Church at Terling refers to 'a brass chandelier with dove finial.' Terling Chapel is reported to be the oldest United Reformed Church in Essex, founded by Thomas Welde, Thomas Shepherd and Thomas Hooker in 1624. Due to their religious beliefs, all three subsequently emigrated to America. Shepherd helped found Harvard University.

A chandelier by Giles is illustrated by Christopher Gilbert (Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, 1978, fig. 117) which was made in 1738 for the church in Cheltenham. He writes 'The Cheltenham chandelier is of special technical and art-historical importance as a new design type, being the earliest recorded example in which the branches are bolted onto collars surrounding the globes instead of being hooked onto the stem above a single orb.' (p. 113). The same is true of the chandelier offered here.

Robert Sherlock writes 'In England, brass chandeliers were the usual means of lighting larger churches; they were an alternative to glass ones in other public buildings, though in private houses they do not seem to have found as much favour as chandeliers of glass or wood.' ('English Brass Chandeliers', Antiques 1959-09: Vol 76 Issue 3 p. 238-241). He goes on to single out the characteristics of English brass chandeliers as opposed to Dutch imported examples 'Consider, for example, the chandelier presented by the Lord Mayor of London to the church of Reigate, Surrey, in 1704 ... In its Dutch contemporary there would probably have been no finial and the branches would have incorporated fish heads. Here, however, there is a finial - a dove...' The trefoil shape of the suspension ring is another typically English detail. Evidence suggests that the method of attaching the branches changed after circa 1740. In discussing the forms of construction of English chandeliers, Sherlock goes on to say 'The next and final step in the process of evolution was to bolt the branches direct to the collar, disregarding the desirability of being able to detach them. One of the earliest of such chandeliers is that at Christ Church, Philadelphia, bought in 1744.'

A comparable example embellished with a dove and a fish is illustrated by Schiffer (The Brass Book, American, English and European Fifteenth Century through 1850 (Schiffer Publishing, 1978), p. 221) with the comment 'The dove and the fish below, both Christian ecclesiastical symbols, are decorative details of great importance. The dove with olive branch is one of very few known. The wings usually come off for cleaning and the olive branch unscrews.'

A lacquered-brass eight-light chandelier attributed to John Giles sold at Christie's London, 14th May, 2003, lot 76 (Norman Adams Collection).