These candlesticks are based on a design developed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc to furnish a chapel in the Paris cathedral of Notre-Dame. Viollet-le-Duc was one of the architects responsible for restoring Notre-Dame in the 1840s, following the damage and destruction of many religious sites during the French Revolution. His designs, inspired by the Gothic style of the medieval period, also proved popular among a secular clientele. Candlesticks of this design remained in production as late as 1889, when they were displayed at the Exposition Universelle, a world’s fair in Paris.