I first saw these sparkly sputniks in Bergdorf Goodman. They went on my wish list that day. Then the New York Times ran a short piece on an exhibition at Moss in SOHO by the original Vienna based crystal maker J & L Lobmeyer. I went and ABSOLUTELY LOVED it. These chandeliers were designed to hang in the Metropolitan Opera House in NYC and still do. There are 11 in the lobby and 21 more inside the opera house. They come up and down out of the ceiling and range in size from small to giant. They were a gift from the Austrian Government – ignited in May 1966. “Sputniks” as they are called were named after the Russian satellite. The chandeliers are made up of a central ball with several metal rods adorned with crystals. Once assembled and hung they mimic crystal “constellations.”
Last year Lobmeyer came to take them down to clean and replace the crystals with new ones from Swarovski . Now that is a hammy down I would kill to have!
Here is a link to the article in the New York Times. Click additional photos for a slide show of taking them down to clean:
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