Are silver candlesticks always sold as pairs?

Pairs dominate to an unusual degree. Of 761 listings, 565 say "pair" in the title. Sets of four are the step up and appear in only 23 titles. Single sticks turn up too, often chamber sticks, and they sit at the bottom of the range.

How many come up for sale each year?

Around 93 candlesticks or pairs come to market on Sellingantiques in a year. They've been listed by 108 different dealers, which makes them one of the more widely stocked silver forms on the site.

What does Old Sheffield plate mean on a candlestick?

It's silver fused to copper, the method used before electroplating arrived. Listings here almost always date it between about 1770 and 1830. It sits in the plated half of the category, alongside later electroplate. Several of the telescopic sticks in the archive are Old Sheffield plate.

Which assay towns appear in the listings?

Four are named: Sheffield, London, Birmingham and Chester. Sheffield leads by a wide margin, appearing in 111 titles, though that count includes its use as a plating word. London, Birmingham and Chester trail behind.

Do Georgian examples turn up often?

They're present but thin. "Georgian" appears in 33 listings and "18th" in 13 titles, against much larger blocks of Victorian, Edwardian and early twentieth-century work. Where they do appear, the eighteenth-century cast silver sticks sit at the top of the range.

Is foreign silver common in this category?

No. The stock is overwhelmingly English. Single Danish, Finnish, Italian, Mexican, Egyptian, Viennese and Greek pieces have passed through, but they're occasional visitors rather than a stream.