The “Caravel” candlesticks, both the one with two and the one with three candles, were inspired by my fathers love of ships and airplanes. As a boy he built lots of beautiful ships models, and if you see the diagonal lines in the candlesticks, they very clearly resemble the lines of masts with booms on the medieval type caravel ships.
In the 1960’s SAS acquired the Caravelle (Sud Aviation) airplane, and my father was very fond of its sophisticated and futuristic French design. If you look at the cups holding the candles, you can clearly see the parable-shaped lines of the window-corners in very special triangular windows of the aircraft. These lines could also be seen in the special drinking glasses and plates (not by Tonn-P) used on board. The Caravelle started the jet-age for SAS, and a lot of PR was created around it.
Fun fact: One day my father came home and said: “Today I gave away a complete aircraft for free”. He had in commission giving away the Caravelle named “Ulf Wiking”. The newly opened aircraft museum in Billund was interested, and they had it for some years, but later closed. Now you can se it on the technical museum in Helsingør:
The candlesticks were never produced in any high numbers, and unfortunately only promotion photos and design drawings exist today in the family. The one with three candles is now beautifully produced by “SpringCopenhagen”, but my father also designed a version with two candles:
Here is a couple of drawings, so typical for the way he worked. As you maybe can see, one of the original ideas was the possibility to disassemble the whole candlestick for shipment in a flat box. In general he wanted his designs to be sold from the very fancy (and very few!) shops in airports, and for the same reason everything should be designed for “carry-on”.
