The large chandelier of opaque glass flowers hangs in the reception room in the main wing of Osborne House, the former country residence of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on the Isle of Wight. The elegant light is adorned with lilies, vines, and transparent leaves of stained glass in green, blue, pink, and yellow mounted on gilded brass branches growing from a gilded basket. The Lobmeyr chandelier is an example of the exuberance for floral ornamentation typical of the mid-nineteenth century. It is speculated that it may have reminded Prince Albert of his childhood at Rosenau Castle near Coburg, several rooms of which are decorated with stylisations of climbing plants. “It is impossible to imagine a prettier spot,” Queen Victoria once said of her beloved home Osborne.

The chandelier dates back to the time when Josef and Ludwig Lobmeyr, the founder’s sons, ran the company together. It may have been presented at the second London World’s Fair in 1862. A drawing of the chandelier, a version of which was also made for Austrian Crown Prince Ferdinand Maximilian, later Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, is preserved in the Lobmeyr archives.

Osborne House can be visited during the opening hours listed on their website:

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/osborne/