My name is Lord Brandr Aronsson, I have been blacksmithing for almost twenty years and I am currently the Guildmaster of the East Kingdom Royal Blacksmiths Guild.
The project I chose for this year’s Crown’s A&S championship is a candle stand from the 14th to 15th Century which is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s cloisters collection. It’s a piece I have wanted to recreate for quite some time, and I thought this would be a fine time to do that. This project will also serve as my Master work within the East Kingdom Blacksmiths Guild.
The piece, called the Pricket Candlestick, itself is part of the Cloisters Collection of 1938. There is not a lot of provenance for it so the estimate is that it is from somewhere in Europe from the 14th or 15th century. The medium is listed as iron and iron alloy, which would be accurate as an overall classification for metal / iron / steel at that time. However, by the 14th and 15th century almost all iron had some carbon content in it which makes it fall into the steel category. (1)
Full documentation and additional photos can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W8626NNkaSbUOWXW4YrKexDuahY9JE9RNJhSX_rEB2U/edit?usp=sharing
This is going to be amazing when finished, thank you so much for sharing the process with us!
This is a most excellent project. Thank you for sharing your research and I can’t wait to see it!
This is a great project. Thanks for sharing the things that didn’t go exactly to plan. It’s great to see that learning process.
The candelabra will look amazing once it is completed. Thank you.
It was so interesting to know what foibles you came up against. What a useful and interesting project! I look forward to seeing it finished.
This was impressive. I know next to nothing about smithing but this definitely made me want to play with fire (maybe). I can’t wait to see it finished.
I am so impressed with your problem solving! This is going to truly be a masterwork and I cannot wait to see the finished piece.
Thank you all for your encouraging comments. This was definitely a bear of a project, as it was supposed to be. I plan to finish it in the coming months and enter it next year for judging.
I applaud you for taking on a project of such large scope! The finished product will be stunning, and I look forward to seeing it one day
This is such a great project! Really, really impressive. I’ve seen the original, and I loved reading your documentation on the history and your process. Since my husband is in the EK Blacksmiths Guild, I have a passing knowledge of how metalwork works, which made reading this even more enjoyable. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished piece when you complete it!
Wow!!! This is amazing! I applaude you for keeping on it after some of the issues you had! Smithing is definitely where art & science meet.
Thank you for shaing your work! I can’t wait to see it complete!