Uber Rich Fancy The Chandeliers

Provence-based Régis Mathieu is keeping the savoir-faire of chandelier-making alive, counting India as one of his most preferred markets.

- PRIYA KUMARI RANA

AT FIRST, they represented power, then extravagance, and today, indulgence. Chandeliers, the exquisite, multi-light creations that hang from gilded ceilings of palaces, have their beginnings in almost 700 BC, near Florence, where the oldest pieces have been discovered. However, it’s the arrival of the wax candle in the middle ages in Europe, which changed everything, and turned them into objects of awe and power, as they found their way into the domains of lords and royalty. “Used by Europeans in cathedrals and churches, candles and chandeliers protected people from the Devil, and the lords protected people from invaders,” says Régis Mathieu, founder of Mathieu Lustrerie, one of the world’s most respected chandelier brands.

“Those who had chandeliers, had light, and this was marvelously reflected in places such as the Hall of Mirrors at the Chateau de Versailles,” says the Marseille-born Régis, whose father Henri founded the chandelier company in 1948. “The light was reflected in quartz crystal, which made it a luxury good.” Today, the company’s chandeliers adorn not only the Chateau de Versailles — he also renovates classic chandeliers, — but also the Opera of Monaco (his largest in Europe), Lakshmi Vilas Palace in Baroda, and homes of industrialists in Delhi and Mumbai.