Chateau Candle Scone - I

Two flames throw more light and softer shadows than one, which is why a sconce like this earned its place on the wall of a grand room. Found in Amiens but originally from a 17th-century château outside Lyon, this hand-forged iron sconce spreads two arms from a fleur-de-lis backplate, each curling out to a candle cup set on a wide drip pan. That dish beneath each candle is a drip pan, there to catch the falling wax, and the whole was hammered out by hand at a forge, no two arms ever bent quite alike. Sylvie would mount it in a dining room or an entry and light both candles at once, the oldest way to warm a wall.