William Theobalds & Robert Atkinson, London 1838
The acanthus-adorned central stem supporting an open-work basket with fruiting vine border, with three branches presumably designed for candle receivers (now lacking), the base engraved with a presentation inscription, height 48.5cm, weight 165.5oz.

Footnotes

Provenance
Phillips, Chester, 1994.

The inscription reads:

'This Candelabra is composed of part of the treasure sunk in his Majesty's late frigate Thetis off Cape Frio in Brazil and recovered from the bottom of the open sea at the depth of 8 fathoms water after being there upwards of 13 months by Captain Thomas Dickinson R.N. The Thetis was lost 5th Decr 1830. The treasure recovered between 31st March 1831 and 9th March 1832.'

Captain Thomas Dickinson was tasked with recovering the sunken cargo of silver of HMS Thetis, which ran against the cliffs at Cape Frio in 1830. Dickinson constructed an elaborate rig which was anchored to the cliffs, and using a ship's water tank as a diving bell was able to recover 750,500 dollars out of the 810,000 total. He wrote an account of the operation in A Narrative of the Operations for the Recovery of the Public Stores and Treasure sunk in H.M.S. Thetis, published in 1836.

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