At a glance
| No. | Part | Italian or trade word | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canopy (ceiling plate) | The cover at the ceiling end that hides the fixing and wiring. On a heavy fitting the real fixing sits behind it. | |
| 2 | Chain or rod | catena, chain | The link between the ceiling and the fitting. Its length sets the drop. |
| 3 | Stem (baluster) | The central column the arms spring from. A UK installer's glossary calls the central section the baluster. | |
| 4 | Arm | braccio, plural bracci | The part that carries a lamp. Italian heritage catalogue records call these chandeliers a bracci, with arms. |
| 5 | Cup | tazza, coppa | The glass cup at the end of an arm. A Murano parts catalogue lists cups, bells and goblets. |
| 6 | Bobeche | The dish below the lampholder that once caught candle wax. | |
| 7 | Lampholder and lamp | The fitting that takes the lamp, and the lamp. E14 is the common base on chandeliers. | |
| 8 | Flower | fiore, plural fiori | A glass flower. Italian records list flowers among the decorations. |
| 9 | Leaf | foglia, plural foglie | A glass leaf. The parts catalogue sells leaves that point up and leaves that point down. |
| 10 | Pastorale (curl) | pastorale, plural pastorali | A curled glass ornament. Our journal guide names pastorali with arms, leaves and flowers. Not defined in any museum source we read. |
| 11 | Glass chain | catenella, plural catenelle | A chain of small glass pieces. Italian records list little chains among the decorations. |
| 12 | Finial | The ornament at the base of the fitting, usually where the arms meet. |
The numbers match the drawing below. Italian words are our translations. Where the sources we read do not define a word, the table says so.
Reading the drawing
Our Murano techniques guide describes a classical Rezzonico chandelier as an assembly of dozens of free-blown and mould-blown elements, among them arms, leaves, flowers and pastorali, each made by hand, each slightly its own and each replaceable. The drawing below labels those parts, with the ones every chandelier has: the canopy, the chain or rod, the stem and the lampholders. The table above is the key.
The drawing is a schematic of one arrangement of two tiers. Real designs have different numbers of arms, tiers and ornaments, and the ornaments sit in different places, so use it to learn the words and not as a model of any piece. Dealer descriptions say that the arms of such chandeliers are metal covered with glass elements; we have not confirmed the construction, and the workshop should say which parts are glass over metal and which are glass alone.
Style names: Rezzonico, pagoda and the rest
A quote may name a style as well as describe a form. These words are used loosely, so read them as a description of how a chandelier looks and ask where it is made. Our sheet Is it genuinely Murano? deals with origin.
| Word | What it names | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Rezzonico (Ca' Rezzonico style) | The flowered, many-armed Venetian chandelier with leaves and flowers. Our Murano chandeliers page calls it the form most people picture. | The Ca' Rezzonico museum describes a twenty-flame chandelier by Giuseppe Briati in its Brustolon Room, made around the mid-eighteenth century in Murano crystal and polychrome glass paste. The museum page does not say the style takes its name from it; the trade does. |
| Pagoda (a pagoda) | A type named in Italian heritage records: multi-arm chandeliers in Murano glass with leaves, flowers and little chains. | Two catalogue records of nineteenth-century chandeliers call the type a pagoda and say such models mostly follow eighteenth-century Venetian originals. The records do not describe its shape. |
| Venetian | A style, not a place. A Venetian chandelier can be made anywhere. | Our Murano chandeliers page says so, and the V&A holds a chandelier made in London about 1865 and titled 'Old Venetian Style'. See our sheet on origin. |
| Murano | A place and a way of making: blown by hand on the island. | Our Murano chandeliers page. See our sheet on origin for the mark. |
| Marie Thérèse | A trade name for tiered chandeliers hung with crystal drops. Not specific to Murano. | No museum source found. Treat as a form name, and confirm with the workshop. |
| Contemporary compositions | Fewer, larger elements: incalmo globes, sommerso pendants, filigrana shades, single-colour statements, clustered globes. | Our Murano chandeliers page and techniques guide. |
Words for the glass itself
These are the words for the glass itself. They are taken from the Glass Museum Murano's glossary, rewritten in plain English. Our Murano specification sheet says what each technique means for the drawing and the schedule.
| Word | What it means | On a quote |
|---|---|---|
| Cristallo | Transparent, colourless glass of great brilliance, clarified with manganese dioxide. The museum says it differs in composition from English and Bohemian lead crystal. | Clear glass. Not the same as lead crystal. |
| Lattimo (milk glass) | Opaque white glass, named for the word for milk. The museum says the opacity was usually achieved with a calcined mixture of lead and tin, or tin oxide. | Hides the lamp; see colour. |
| Sommerso (submerged) | A piece plunged into crucibles of different coloured glass while it is worked, leaving transparent layers of colour, perhaps thick. | A thick wall. |
| Incalmo | A technique in which an object is made of distinct parts joined while the glass is still hot. | A crisp colour band. |
| Murrine, millefiori | Slices of patterned glass rod, used to build patterned surfaces. | Pattern varies piece to piece. |
| Filigrana | Rods with fine threads of lattimo or coloured glass; a retortoli in twists or spirals, a reticello where the rods overlap. | Threads in the wall. |
| Avventurina (aventurine) | Cinnamon-yellow glass with gleaming specks, from tiny copper crystals that form as the glass cools. | Gold-flecked. |
| Calcedonio (chalcedony) | Opaque glass, made with silver salts or other colourant oxides, to imitate stones such as agate. | Marbled. |
| Ghiaccio (ice glass) | A surface crazed like ice, on translucent glass. | Crazing is the design. |
| Pontello (pontil) | The iron rod that supports the glass while the maker works on the part that was attached to the blowpipe. | Source of the pontil mark. |
Naming sizes and counts in a schedule
A schedule is only useful if every word means one thing. The first three rows match our sheets on specifying Murano glass lighting and chandelier sizing and hanging heights.
| Say | Define it as | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Drop | From the finished ceiling to the lowest point of the fitting. | Some suppliers give the length of the chain only. Write the definition on the drawing. |
| Overall height | From the underside of the canopy to the lowest point. | Not the same as the drop. |
| Overall diameter | The widest extent. Say whether it includes the cups and lamps. | Catalogue diameters often stop at the glass. |
| Arm span | Our suggestion: the distance across the outermost arm ends, between the centres of opposite cups. | No source defines it. Use it only with a definition on the drawing. |
| Arms, lights and tiers | State the number of arms, the number of lights and the number of tiers separately. | The Ca' Rezzonico page counts flames; the Italian records count arms. They are not always the same number. |
| Elements | A schedule of every element type: number, technique, colour sample, mould-blown or free-blown, and spares. | A Rezzonico chandelier is dozens of separate elements. |
Six traps when reading a quote or drawing
- One part, several names. The same part may be called a cup, a tazza or a bell, and the dish under a lamp a bobeche. Ask the workshop to key every part to a numbered drawing, as this sheet does, and to use one name throughout its drawings, quotation and packing list.
- A word may name a shape, a part or a style. Pastorali names an ornament, pagoda names a type, Rezzonico names a style. Ask which one is meant.
- Spellings and plurals vary. Italian words appear as bracci, foglie, fiori and catenelle. Use the workshop's own spelling on drawings.
- Counts differ. Arms, lights and elements are three numbers. Ask for all three.
- Spares. Our journal guide says each element is replaceable. Ask which are held as spares, and how a missing element is remade to match the colour (see Murano glass colour).
- Style is not origin. Rezzonico and Venetian describe how a piece looks. They do not say where it was made.
Specification wording
Paste into your schedule or specification and replace anything in [square brackets] with your own figures. Wording is a starting point: your specification governs.
The shop drawing keys every part by number, using the names in schedule [ref]: canopy, chain or rod, stem, arms, cups, bobeches, lampholders, flowers, leaves, pastorali, glass chains and finial. The workshop uses one name for each part throughout its drawings, quotation and packing list, and gives the Italian name where it uses one.
[Rezzonico / pagoda] style: the reference is to form only. Number of tiers [ ], number of arms [ ], number of lights [ ] are stated separately. The fitting is not described as Murano unless the origin evidence in schedule [ref] is supplied.
Drop [ ] mm from finished ceiling to lowest point; overall height [ ] mm from underside of canopy to lowest point; overall diameter [ ] mm at the widest point [including / excluding] cups and lamps; arm span [ ] mm between the centres of opposite cups. The definitions are written on the drawing.
The workshop supplies an element schedule listing, for each type (arm, cup, bobeche, flower, leaf, pastorale, glass chain, finial): the number, the technique, the colour sample reference, whether mould-blown or free-blown, and which are held as spares. A missing or damaged element is remade to match the control piece [within [ ] weeks].
Terms used on this page
- Rezzonico
- A classic Venetian chandelier style with many glass arms, leaves and flowers. In trade use it describes the form, not a maker, and is linked to the Ca' Rezzonico palace-museum in Venice.
- Pagoda (a pagoda)
- A type of Murano glass chandelier named in Italian heritage catalogue records, with arms, leaves, flowers and little chains. The records we read do not describe its shape.
- Pastorali
- In Murano chandelier vocabulary, curled glass ornaments listed with arms, leaves and flowers. We found no museum definition: confirm with the workshop.
- Bobeche
- The dish below the lampholder at the end of an arm, which once caught dripping candle wax.
- Canopy (ceiling plate)
- The cover at the ceiling end of a fitting that hides the fixing and wiring. On a heavy fitting the real fixing sits behind it.
- Finial
- The ornament at the base of a fitting, usually where the arms meet.
Standards and sources
- Ca' Rezzonico (Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia): Brustolon Room: read 5 Nov 2026: the twenty-flame chandelier, mid-eighteenth century.
- Catalogo generale dei beni culturali (Italian Ministry of Culture), records ICCD 3162231 and 3160370: Museo Colocci, Jesi; nineteenth-century Murano chandeliers described as a bracci and a pagoda. Italian text read and paraphrased.
- Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Glass Museum Murano: What is glass? (English leaflet): read 5 Nov 2026: pp. 7, 9, 10 (vocabulary and glossary).
- V&A collections, chandelier record O652: a chandelier made in London about 1865, titled 'Old Venetian Style'.
Questions we are asked
What does Rezzonico mean on a chandelier?
A style: the flowered, many-armed Venetian chandelier with leaves and flowers, our Murano chandeliers page calls it the form most people picture. The name is linked to the Ca' Rezzonico palace-museum in Venice, where a twenty-flame chandelier by Giuseppe Briati of about the mid-eighteenth century hangs in the Brustolon Room. In the trade it describes the form, not a maker.
What are pastorali?
In Murano chandelier vocabulary the word names curled glass ornaments. Our journal guide lists pastorali with arms, leaves and flowers as elements of a Rezzonico chandelier, and a Murano parts catalogue sells curls and pastorals together. We found no museum definition, and a dealer's explanation that the name comes from a shepherd's crook is unverified. Ask the workshop to mark them on the drawing.
What are the parts of a chandelier called?
From the ceiling down: the canopy, the chain or rod, the stem or baluster, the arms, with a cup, a bobeche, a lampholder and a lamp at the end of each, the glass ornaments (flowers, leaves, pastorali and glass chains) and the finial at the base. The labelled drawing on this page numbers each.
What is the difference between Venetian and Murano?
Venetian describes a style, the ornate flowered chandelier, and a Venetian chandelier can be made anywhere. Murano describes where and how the glass is made: blown by hand on the island. See our sheet on origin.
What is the difference between a chandelier's drop and its height?
The drop runs from the finished ceiling to the lowest point. The overall height runs from the underside of the canopy to the lowest point, so it is shorter by the canopy and any fixing above it. Write the definition on the drawing, because suppliers use the words differently.
What is a bobeche?
The dish below the lampholder at the end of an arm. It once caught dripping wax, and on an electric chandelier it is a decorative part of the arm end.
Download the factsheet
A two-page A4 PDF with the labelled drawing, the parts and style words, and paste-in wording for part names and sizes, to keep with your project file.