Tiffany Studios

Macklowe Gallery, New York

Private Collection, New York, acquired from the above in 2004

Sotheby's New York, December 15, 2011, lot 235

Acquired from the above by the present owner

David A. Hanks, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Treasures from the Driehaus Collection, New York, 2013, p. 56 (for the shade)

Margaret K. Hofer and Rebecca Klassen, The Lamps of Tiffany Studios: Nature Illuminated, New York, 2016, p. 128 (for the shade)

Alastair Duncan, Tiffany Lamps and Metalware, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2019, pp. 118, no. 455 (for the shade); 86, no. 328 and 141, no. 575 (for the base)

Louis Comfort Tiffany was responsible for the landscaping of his 600-acre estate in Oyster Bay, New York. He was naturally attracted to the most exotic examples as well as plants native to the region. Tiffany, however, appreciated even the simplest of flowers, including the modest nasturtium. And what was suitable for his gardens was equally appropriate for one of his leaded glass lamp shades.

Tiffany was so enamored with the “Tom Thumb” variety of the nasturtium that Tiffany Studios’ 1906 Price List included five different models based on the flower: a large hanging shade, a16-inch diameter shade with latticework and an irregular lower border, two examples with 18-inch diameters, a 22-inch model designed as a floor lamp, and model number 1492 represented by the beautiful lamp offered here. Priced at $125, it was the costliest 20-inch shade in the catalog.

The profusion of flowers is depicted on a mottled and green-streaked yellow ground in varying angles and in a wide variety of richly saturated colors, ranging from crimson, fuchsia and plum to apricot and yellow. The flowers are situated among mottled amber and green leaves, some of which have a most interesting attribute of being dichroic. Those leaves appear streaked with blue or chartreuse when the lights are turned off but magically change to various shades of green when the lamp is lit. Combined with a rare patinated bronze base, a variation of model number 315, which is especially sculptural, the lamp is one of the most beautiful and striking examples of the model ever offered.

– PAUL DOROS