Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Picture the opulence of candlelit Versailles in the 18th century, where gilded objects sparkled and shone.

Our Curator of Decorative Arts, Alexander Collins, illuminates the symbolism of a pair of candlesticks created to celebrate the birth of Marie-Antoinette’s long-awaited son, the ‘dauphin’ (the word for the heir to the throne, which also means dolphin) of France. The queen kept them in her private apartment at Versailles, in the Cabinet de la Méridienne.

💌Visit us this weekend to take our free trail ‘Marie-Antoinette: An Eye for Beauty’, before it finishes on 31 March.