Tiffany Studios

DeLorenzo Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1986

Alastair Duncan, Tiffany Lamps and Metalware, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2019, p. 97, no. 372

Louis Comfort Tiffany was attracted to bodies of water as is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that his Miami and Oyster Bay mansions were both built with fabulous views of large bays. This attraction was also conveyed in several of his leaded glass windows designs, several of which featured mermaids and mermen. The theme was also introduced as a lamp base by Tiffany around 1899, with the model being illustrated in the firm’s Lamps and Fixtures catalog published in 1900. The base, one of the company’s earliest electrified examples, was combined with a pivoting nautilus shell but, for some unknown reason, was neither described nor priced as were the other lamps in the pamphlet. It was, however, listed in their 1906 Price List as model 404, “Nautilus, natural shell mermaid, $125,” impressively priced the same as a Bamboo floor lamp. The mermaid lamp was in production for a short time and discontinued before 1910.

Their 1900 catalog depicted another electrified reading lamp in the “Nautilus Design” but with “a hood of leaded ‘Favrile Glass,’ so that a strong light can be thrown at any angle desired.” Tiffany Studios permitted clients to mix and match certain shades with selected bases and, in rare circumstances, the mermaid base was combined with the leaded shade instead of a shell. These shades, of opalescent white glass shading to green, were structurally complex and aptly display the superior craftsmanship the company was famous for.

Just as Tiffany hired a cadre of artists to design his leaded glass windows, a noted sculptor was enlisted to create the finely cast and beautifully patinated mermaid base. Louis Albert Gudebrod (1872-1961), a native of Connecticut, graduated from the Yale University Art School in 1892 and later studied with Augustus St. Gaudens in Paris. St. Gaudens also did design work for Tiffany, and it was likely he was responsible for introducing the two men to each other. Gudebrod was widely known for his bronze plaques and medals and was later awarded a Gold Medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition.

– PAUL DOROS