The History of the Tiffany Lamp

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Louis Comfort Tiffany’s breathtaking lamps are recognized and owned by many people worldwide.⁶

Approximately, around the year 1895 the first Tiffany lamp was created. Even though they were made in multiples, there is no record of the quantity of each lamp completed. Beautiful in design and intricacy, each lamp was made by hand, not mass or machine produced. ³ Usually, the people who made his works come to life, were extremely knowledgeable of the craft. His fellow colleagues, Curtis Freschel, and Clara Driscoll, are known as two of his famed workers. Freschel designed the Wisteria lamp and Driscoll made patterns consisting of flowers and butterflies for his lamps.

Tiffany’s first business venture was an interior design firm in New York, for which he designed stained glass windows, and doing so he came up with the idea to construct lamps. With the remaining pieces from his windows, Tiffany arranged the glass to form a lamp. ⁵ Although he continued to paint and design for quite some time, Tiffany’s main desire was glasswork.

Roughly, over twenty years of time, Tiffany designed the many specific styles of his lamps. Most of his luminaries can be grouped into one of seven specific categories, defining their detailed characteristics. The: Irregular Upper and Lower Border, Favrile,Geometric,Transition to Flowers, Flowered Cone, and Flowered Globe lamps. The Irregular Upper and Lower Border lamps carry an openwork crown edge that helps to stimulate a branch, tree, or shrubbery. The Favrile category, which means handcrafted, identifies the first lamps Tiffany made with this label. His initials LCT, later replaced the Favrile stamp. The Geometric category speaks for itself. Tiffany used small geometric shapes such as triangles, squares, rectangles, and ovals to form these specific lamps. Next is the Transition to Flowers group, which is subdivided into the Flowered Cone and Globe lamps. All of these lamps follow a defined nature or botanical design using flowers, dragonflies, spiders and their webs, butterflies, and peacock feathers. The difference within these two smaller categories is that the lamps encompass different shapes, a cone and a globe. ²

Aside from their categorization every lamp was prepared by using the Copper Foil method. First a pattern for the lamp is drawn out on a heavy piece of cardboard. Next a number and glass color is written on the pattern piece. After the pattern is drawn and labeled, the glass is laid over it and traced. Once the pattern is traced onto the glass, the pieces can be cut and grinded to their correct shape. Next the pieces need to be cleaned so the copper foil can be applied to the edges. The copper foil solution allows the pieces to adhere together. After the lamp has been placed accordingly and it is fully bonded, the edges need to be soldered together for a firm hold. Finally after the lamp has been soldered it is cleaned to bring out its beauty. ⁴

Today, Tiffany’s lamps can be bought and sold for thousands, and even millions of dollars. Moreover, individuals find Tiffany’s craft of glasswork to be so astonishing that they are willing to pay whatever amount of money to obtain a specific piece.