Jesus & Maria Candlesticks

Sometimes things happen which although disturbing at the time affords the opportunity to ensure the protection that others may not fall foul of the same.

Having received a call from someone I knew in the Netherlands region, reporting that they had come across a pair of Brockwitz Jesus and Maria Candlesticks which are very rare as you all know ; I arranged to meet the people with a view to purchase them.

Having made all the arrangements and travelled to the venue I was excited to see the people waiting for me on arrival, who then took me to see the Candlesticks which were in a storage area. I was invited to give my assurance that I would respect the provenance of these candlesticks, as the then owners did not wish to be known.

On opening the box and unwrapping the first Candlestick my internal Carnival Glass alarm bells began ringing as what I was looking at was a very pale and lightly iridized Jesus Candlestick which from the moment I set eyes on it did not look right and I was struggling to see the iridescence.

By the time I unwrapped the second, the Maria Candlestick, my suspicions were being more and more raised and I then decided that I would phone a very good knowledgeable friend who explained that they had recently bought one of these Candlesticks from a seller in the Netherlands on Ebay thinking it was a major find.

They also informed me that another collector in England had also in the last few weeks bought a pair of these Candlesticks from Ebay again from a seller in the Netherlands and that collector had made contact expressing some concern.

The Candlesticks I was looking at were very weak in colour, had a hard to find patchy iridescence which you had to turn the stick every which way possible to see however it is very similar to that found on clear Avon iridized scent bottles, but much poorer in quality, I also noticed that the pattern was not consistent with what is illustrated in the Brockwitz catalogue as I remembered it.

At this point my thoughts went from a buying mode to that of my pre-Carnival investigative mode and I started to ask questions, I was informed eventually by the seller that they had bought the Candlesticks from a market in Belgium which has around 40 pairs of the Jesus and Maria Candlestick in clear glass and blue, they say they found the sticks in amongst them My investigations tell me that Europe is awash with Jesus and Maria Candlesticks in these colours.

When I arrived back home I made contact with the people who had purchased their Candlesticks on Ebay from the seller in the Netherlands and went to their house for comparison and their thoughts. I also checked out the sales from the Netherlands on Ebay:

The seller knew enough to describe them individually as Very Rare, to Name Them and to give a very good description, details which could only have been found in one of the books written by Glen and Steve Thistlewood, this being so then why did the seller not include the name of the maker Brockwitz ????? this on the Ebay description was given as maker?

I believe that someone, somewhere in the world is producing a modern version of the Jesus and Maria Candlesticks with enough small changes to the pattern so as not to infringe the copyright laws, or that some other manufacturers mould is being used.

I also believe that it would not be to hard for someone to take these Modern Type Clear Candlesticks and to apply a cold spray on version of modern chemical iridescence for gratuitous gain or indeed they may be manufactured that way.

After I had asked a lot of questions and they realized I knew what I was talking about, They gave them to me, free of charge and asked that I did not tell anyone where they were from.

NOTE: Original Jesus and Maria Candlesticks were produced by Fenne in the 1920's. Please refer to A Century of Carnival Glass by Glen and Stephen Thistlewood for an accurate account, along with photos of glowing marigold examples. These "later" imposters are certainly not of the same quality as the earlier versions.