In the early 19th century in France, a style of lighting fixtures was developed to match the current architecture and furnishings, which became known as "Empire Styling". Such lighting fixtures were pear shaped and were ornamented with chains made of cut rock crystal or cut glass ornaments. A metal ring to which the chains were attached supported a plurality of candle supporting arms. Near the end of the 19th century, the candle supporting arms were replaced with incandescent bulbs installed on the inside of the pear-shaped configuration.
Manufacturers in the northern part of Bohemia popularized and perfected the construction of such lighting fixtures by using techniques unknown to the manufacturers in early 19th century France. Glass in the shape of leaves was molded and attached to the chain and prism supporting metal rings, known as gallery rings. Such leaf-shaped glass parts became an indispensable part of this type of lighting fixture.
The prior art glass leaf included a single mounting hole and was mounted to the gallery ring with the largest part of the glass leaf extending upwardly from the gallery ring. The drawback of this configuration was that the glass leaves tended to tilt and/or rotate about the single mounting screw, thereby causing the chandelier to have an unattractive appearance. To fasten the glass leaves using force was not practical, since breakage would be unavoidable. Thus, the glass leaves were mounted to the gallery ring with little or no space between them, so that each glass leaf was prevented by adjacent glass leaves from rotating about the mounting screw. This approach was detrimental to the appearance of the fixture and added to its cost, since a large number of glass leaves was required.
When the gallery ring is visible in the finished chandelier, it must have an attractive appearance. In addition, the gallery ring should be easy to manufacture and low in cost.
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