When you hang a chandelier in your home you acquire something practical and beautiful and an object that will become a focus for the room. All other decorations will revolve around it. It will become a talking point, the centrepiece. A fireplace draws attention to a lower level in a room; whereas a chandelier is the highest point of a room's decoration.

Never before in the long history of the chandelier has there been as much choice as there is today. You can buy in person or over the internet. You can scour or the junk shops in England or America or the brocante stalls in France.

Perhaps the longest established and best known chandelier maker in France is the firm of Baccarat, which continues to thrive today.

The type of chandelier which is associated with French work is more open with its main structural support supplied not by chains or a stem but rather by a cage or frame with prettily curved arms, often gilded and with drops or candles in the centre space. Like English chandeliers, they have chains of drops and pendants.

The difference is that instead of being massed together, they are however spaced further apart so that they can be seen individually. The effect is extremely ornate and delicate without being elaborate.

The ironwork on French chandeliers by the 1900s was superbly refined and attractive. The stem might have leaves and stalks curling off it supporting crystal drops, beads and flowers. For all the festoons and bags drops, glass arms, full panoply of other elements, the French chandelier is distinctively never crowded or heavy and always alluring.

Chandeliers come in all sizes and shapes - some more unusual than others. Amongst some of the most charming eccentric chandeliers are those designed to represent hot-air balloons. The early nineteenth century saw a wave of enthusiasm for hot-air balloons, prompted by the first balloon flight by the Montgolfier brothers, Joseph and Michel travelling through the air for some 6 miles in 1783. Some Montgolfier chandeliers are French others Italian.

One of the things you need to be absolutely sure of is that your chandelier is safe; that when it is installed it will stay up, it won't shed pieces on your head and it won't electrocute anyone or burn the house down.

If you bought you chandelier from a brocante or a market you should use common sense about its wiring. Any chandelier is only as safe as good electrically speaking as the circuit of which it is part. Have it tested by an electrician and rewired if in doubt.