How heavy is a brass piece?

Solid brass fittings are heavy. The cast arms and central baluster carry significant mass. A standard plasterboard fixing won't hold the weight. Always check your ceiling joists before hanging one.

We inherited a massive glass fitting from my grandmother's house and some of the hanging drops are loose, is it safe to leave them or should we rewire the whole thing?

Loose glass drops rely on old wire that fatigues over time. Unhook the shaky ones before they fall and shatter on the floor below. Rewiring is a separate issue entirely. Old cloth-covered cable degrades inside the metal arms and becomes a fire hazard. Get an electrician to test the circuit. They can safely pull new core wire through the original channels.

Can they hold modern bulbs?

You can easily fit modern LED bulbs into old lamp holders. The threads and bayonet caps match the sizes established in the early twentieth century. Electricians often replace the actual sleeve holding the bulb. The visual effect remains the same once the outer decorative candle tube slips over the top.

I was looking at a dark metal fitting at an auction house yesterday and the surface looks almost black in the crevices, should I polish it back to bright brass?

That dark surface is a natural patina that builds up over a century of exposure to the air. Stripping it away with metal polish leaves the brass looking raw and new. Most collectors prefer to leave the deep colour intact. You only need to dust the arms and wipe them gently with a damp cloth.

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Antique Chandelier

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An antique chandelier is a suspended, multi-branched light fitting designed to illuminate large rooms from above. Originally holding candles or gas mantles, they gather cut glass or cast metal around a central stem to reflect and multiply the light across the space.