Art Nouveau style candelabrum

There were many economic imperatives for the growth of European colonialism in the late 19th century, such as the desire to expand into new markets and the lucrative trade in colonial commodities. For example, the Congo Free State, which, up until 1908, was the personal possession of King Leopold II, was home to an apparently limitless supply of natural rubber. With the invention of the pneumatic tyre in 1887, demand for the material soared and vast sums of money poured into Belgian cities, such as Antwerp and Brussels. One estimate put returns from rubber stocks in the 1890s to be in excess of 200 %. Meanwhile, Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904), who popularised the exploration and exploitation of the Congo, estimated that its 200 000 elephants would give an ivory yield in excess of GBP 5 million. At this time, the brutal and exploitative collection of rubber in the Congo was generating a growing international outcry through the work of figures such as Roger Casement (1864-1916) and Edmund Dene Morel (1873-1924). In an effort to distract from the brutality of this trade, Leopold promoted the use of ivory among artists and craftspeople by distributing elephant tusks to encourage the production of works, often in the art nouveau style, that would burnish the image of Belgian imperialism. This candelabrum is one such item. It was made to hold electric light bulbs, at that moment the cutting edge of technology, and is similar in style to works that Rombaux and Hoosemans produced to represent Belgium at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900.