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Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend 1

Matali Crasset’s Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend 1 is a glittering reinvention of the lantern. Every surface is the product of tradition. The metal is forged from paktong, a re-discovered metal derived from an 18th century Chinese candlestick. It has a unique hue of extraordinary silver inflected with gold. It does not tarnish and is harder than silver. In Europe it was primarily used for fire grates, candlesticks and parts of firearms. It is the perfect match for Matali Crasset’s lantern, already a contemporary classic.

The glass is hand-blown by the master glass-makers of Lamberts. Each pane of glass begins as molten glass blown into a cylinder. It is scored, laid on a slab of polished stone and returned to a furnace where it splits along the scored line forming a sheet. The sheet of glass is ironed to a smooth finish to create a beautiful and individual pane.

The lantern is lit by an internal hanging pendant made with hand-blown, milk-white glass and accented with shards of clear light escaping from the open-edged frame. The structure of the lantern is cast by the lost wax method, as molten paktong is poured into each ceramic cast to shape and cool. This precious diamond lantern is a jewel of sculpted design bathing any room with a crystal beauty.