Pair of Brutalist Candle Holders – Europe, circa 1960s

These are objects that demand to be touched. Each candle holder is cast in dark metal — most likely cast iron, given their considerable weight and solidity — with a hammered surface that looks less like it was made and more like it erupted. The texture is volcanic and deeply tactile: pitted, rippled and encrusted, with hints of iridescent blue-green patina catching the light across the rough surface of the tray. The square tray sits on a cluster of four abstract, sculptural feet — angular and organic at once, like something between a fossil and a modernist maquette. At the centre of each tray, a slender gold-painted metal spike rises to hold the candle, its smooth surface providing a deliberate and elegant contrast to the raw chaos around it.

Brutalism in decorative arts was at its peak in the 1960s and 1970s, when artists and craftspeople across Europe embraced raw materials, deliberately unfinished surfaces and sculptural weight as a conscious rejection of the polished, the pretty and the mass-produced. This pair sits squarely in that tradition — heavy in hand, heavy in presence, and deeply considered in their making.

Condition is excellent. The patina is entirely natural and adds greatly to their character. Sold as a pair.