girandole

thumb|A girandole with convex mirror A girandole () is an ornamental branched candle holder consisting of several lights that may be on a stand or mounted on the wall, either by itself or attached to a mirror. Girandole has been used to refer to a number of different objects and designs; it originally referred to a form of firework, but was adopted in France in the mid-17th century as a term for a luxurious object for lighting. The early girandoles were candelabras decorated with crystals looking like a chandelier on a stand, but it was also used at one time to describe all candelabras and chandeliers, with or without crystals. In the 18-century, a girandole may be attached to a mirror, and large wall-mounted girandoles with a mirror incorporated became fashionable in England in the second half of the 18th century. A form of girandole backed with a round convex mirror was also popular in the United States in the early 19th century.

==Etymology== thumb|left|A pair of late-17th century French girandoles The word girandole first appeared in English in the first half of the 17th century in reference to a rotating firework. It comes from the French ', which is in turn derived from the Italian ', meaning a kind of horizontal Catherine wheel-like firework. Girandola is a diminutive of giranda, deriving from girare and Latin gyrāre, meaning "to gyrate", which in turn comes from gyrus and ultimately from Greek gŷros meaning "ring or circle".