Vintage Horseshoe Pricket Candlestick | Wrought Iron on Carved Pine | Mid-Century Rustic | Very Good

Two horseshoes, a handful of nails and a lump of pine, and somebody with a forge turned them into something rather lovely.

This is a double pricket candlestick in the country rustic style that filled farmhouse kitchens, village pubs and holiday cottages across Britain and Europe in the 1960s and 70s. Two real horseshoes stand upright side by side, welded into an arch, with a hand-forged iron leaf rising between them and a pair of old horseshoe nails set at their feet. On top of each shoe sits a carved and stained wooden cup with an iron spike to hold a candle.

The base is the part people pick up and run their thumbs over. It is a thick block of pine that has been wire-brushed to raise the grain, so that the soft wood is worn away and the hard growth rings stand proud, giving it the rippled, weathered look of driftwood. Stained a deep brown, it has the feel of something that has spent fifty years by a fire, which it may well have done.

A horseshoe has been a token of good luck for as long as there have been horses to shoe, and two of them together seems like a fair way to hedge your bets. It would suit a kitchen table, a mantelpiece, a hearth, or anybody with a soft spot for horses and the countryside.

Condition: Very Good. The ironwork is solid and dark with no rust, the welds are sound and the whole piece stands firm and heavy. The base is intact, with one small chip to an edge on the underside, out of sight when it stands. Traces of old candle wax remain in the cups. There is no maker's mark.

Extra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.

Wrapped in good heavy paper — we don't skimp on that — and packed into a sturdy box so nothing shifts on the way to you, wherever in the world that happens to be. Kat packs and checks every parcel herself, and she is not easily pleased. The unwrapping ought to be half the pleasure.

The Novel Relics Team