Tiffany Lamps and Metalware

T

iffany

Lamps and Metalware

2000

and

models

Metalware

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Alastair Duncan

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Lamps and Metalware

Comprehensive and beautifully illustrated, this expanded edition of Tiffany Lamps and Metalware presents an inexhaustible selection of items manufactured by Tiffany Studios over more than thirty years of uninterrupted production. As Tiffany Studios never published an official catalogue raisonné, this book is the closest one can come to a record of their prolific output.

Updated and reorganised, this latest edition of Tiffany Lamps and Metalware is an accessible and functional guide to Tiffany’s wide-spanning oeuvre.

New Edition: fully revised and extended An illustrated reference to over 2000 models

ISBN: 978-1-78884-030-9

ËxHSLHSIy840309zv;:*:*:!:+

T

iffany

Endless in its variety, this book is the ultimate pictorial reference work. Vibrantly coloured table and floor lamps, chandeliers and sconces, as well as Tiffany’s famous leaded lampshades are represented here. The book also features numerous metalware items, from inkstands and candlesticks to book ends, tea screens, clocks and tobacco jars. An index crossreferences the firms’ original model numbers and sales descriptions to the illustrations, further enabling identification.

Lamps

illustrated reference to over

Tiffany

An

Alastair Duncan is an international consultant on nineteenth- and twentieth-century decorative arts and was, for 10 years, a specialist and consultant on the subject for Christie’s New York. He is the author of Louis C.Tiffany – The Garden Museum Collection and the Paris Salons series, also published by ACC. He has written 36 other books on the decorative arts, as well as articles for magazines including Vogue, Connoisseur, The Magazine Antiques and House & Garden.

Alastair Duncan

Front cover: Model #151, Mosaic wheat base with Cobweb and Apple Blossom shade (p.27) Back cover, clockwise from top left: Model #349 Pony Wisteria lamp (p.79); Model #805 Stamp box with scarab lid (p.469); Etched metal and glass clock (p.455); Model #1223 Candlestick with Favrile glass balls in base and stem (p.409); Butterfly lamp screen (p.502); Tobacco jar (p.487)

Contents To Paul W. Imrie

Introduction

7

Chapter 1: Oil Lamp Bases 13 Chapter 2: Electric Lamps 61 Chapter 3: Leaded Shades 143 Chapter 4: Floor Lamps

223

Chapter 5: Hanging Shades 245 Chapter 6: Sconces

361

Chapter 7: Miscellaneous Articles Chapter 8: Candlesticks

405

Chapter 9: Fancy Goods

427

Chapter 10: Desk Sets 509 Index 547 Photography Credits 574 Acknowledgements

575

399

Contents To Paul W. Imrie

Introduction

7

Chapter 1: Oil Lamp Bases 13 Chapter 2: Electric Lamps 61 Chapter 3: Leaded Shades 143 Chapter 4: Floor Lamps

223

Chapter 5: Hanging Shades 245 Chapter 6: Sconces

361

Chapter 7: Miscellaneous Articles Chapter 8: Candlesticks

405

Chapter 9: Fancy Goods

427

Chapter 10: Desk Sets 509 Index 547 Photography Credits 574 Acknowledgements

575

399

Introduction It is best stated at the start; this is not a catalogue raisonné of the works of the Tiffany Studios. Seasoned Tiffany observers - collectors and dealers, alike - know that there is no seeming end to the lamp and metalware designs generated by the firm in its nearly thirty years of uninterrupted production between the late 1890s and the late 1920s – decades during which an inexhaustible number of models, whether designed for mass-production or as ‘special order’ commissions, entered the marketplace. For years, the arrival of an unrecorded object has generated in the veteran Tiffany observer the momentary thought that this is, surely, the very last item ‘out there’, that he or she has now certainly seen it all! But then, just as predictably as Tiffany prices rise from year to year rather than fall, another unknown model appears, generating the same disbelief amongst those who had thought there was nothing left to enchant and surprise them!

This is, rather, an expanded reprint of two volumes written a quarter century ago - that of Tiffany at Auction, and The Lamps of Tiffany Studios. The first I authored in 1981; the second, in partnership with William J. Feldstein, Jr., a Beverly Hills collector, the following year. The copyrights of both publications reverted to me later. Added here to the illustrations from those two volumes are a host of images obtained from auction house catalogues through the years, especially those of Christies, Sothebys and Doyles, which are identified in the rear of the book, and materials from my own files.

That Tiffany Studios did not maintain an updated list of its creations ensures that a complete inventory of its works can never be compiled. Nevertheless, if the sheer volume of its surviving production can serve as an indicator, the total defies comprehension; not only in the number of different models produced and in their stylistic breadth, but in the often considerable number of examples manufactured of many of these models.

Consider, for example, the ever-popular Wisteria table lamp, which is comprised of many hundreds of minute pieces of glass, each which had to be cut from a template by hand, then wrapped in copper foil, assembled and soldered on a wooden mould. Setting aside the aesthetic sensibilities required by the

Desk lamp with internally-lit leaded glass floral panels

artisan to ensure an optimum naturalistic effect in the blended selection of the shade’s colors, the operation involved countless hours of meticulous, if not arduous, handiwork.

The completion of just one Wisteria lampshade, to most observers, would represent a significant accomplishment. Yet the Lamp Shop at Tiffany Studios manufactured the model in a production line type of operation through many years, each a masterpiece in its virtuoso craftsmanship and artistry. And whereas no tally was compiled, finally, of the total produced, the fact that over fifty Wisterias are known to exist today suggests that perhaps twice that number were made, a feasible projection when consideration is given to the severe attrition rate for all Tiffany lamps during the many years they were deemed passé and summarily tossed into the trash or stripped for their lead content.

And if one considers, further, that the Wisteria was only one of a host of popular models - there are at least as many examples of both the 22-inch Peony and Dragonfly lampshades in existence today, to mention only two other perennial favorites - the numbers are simply overwhelming.

How could an industrial arts conglomerate, even one of the size and interdisciplinary complexity of the Tiffany Studios, manufacture such a giant and varied selection of goods of such unwavering technical and aesthetic quality?

The chronological list of model numbers produced by the Tiffany Studios that appears in this book’s Index was compiled largely from the two principal Price Lists published through the years by the firm; the first, which remained the core list of its lamp and metalware inventory, on October 1, 1906, and the second, on October 1, 1913, an updated version in which items introduced subsequently were included. A littleknown third Price List served to add information absent from the 1906 and 1913 versions: this is the one published in 1929, the year after the Louis C. Tiffany Furnaces, Inc. division of the firm (including the Corona workshops, with its furnaces), was dissolved and sold to A. Douglas Nash. The 1929 list is, in effect, a checklist of the firm’s outstanding inventory at its closure; as such, its historical value lies today both in the names it provides of those models unidentified on the

7

Introduction It is best stated at the start; this is not a catalogue raisonné of the works of the Tiffany Studios. Seasoned Tiffany observers - collectors and dealers, alike - know that there is no seeming end to the lamp and metalware designs generated by the firm in its nearly thirty years of uninterrupted production between the late 1890s and the late 1920s – decades during which an inexhaustible number of models, whether designed for mass-production or as ‘special order’ commissions, entered the marketplace. For years, the arrival of an unrecorded object has generated in the veteran Tiffany observer the momentary thought that this is, surely, the very last item ‘out there’, that he or she has now certainly seen it all! But then, just as predictably as Tiffany prices rise from year to year rather than fall, another unknown model appears, generating the same disbelief amongst those who had thought there was nothing left to enchant and surprise them!

This is, rather, an expanded reprint of two volumes written a quarter century ago - that of Tiffany at Auction, and The Lamps of Tiffany Studios. The first I authored in 1981; the second, in partnership with William J. Feldstein, Jr., a Beverly Hills collector, the following year. The copyrights of both publications reverted to me later. Added here to the illustrations from those two volumes are a host of images obtained from auction house catalogues through the years, especially those of Christies, Sothebys and Doyles, which are identified in the rear of the book, and materials from my own files.

That Tiffany Studios did not maintain an updated list of its creations ensures that a complete inventory of its works can never be compiled. Nevertheless, if the sheer volume of its surviving production can serve as an indicator, the total defies comprehension; not only in the number of different models produced and in their stylistic breadth, but in the often considerable number of examples manufactured of many of these models.

Consider, for example, the ever-popular Wisteria table lamp, which is comprised of many hundreds of minute pieces of glass, each which had to be cut from a template by hand, then wrapped in copper foil, assembled and soldered on a wooden mould. Setting aside the aesthetic sensibilities required by the

Desk lamp with internally-lit leaded glass floral panels

artisan to ensure an optimum naturalistic effect in the blended selection of the shade’s colors, the operation involved countless hours of meticulous, if not arduous, handiwork.

The completion of just one Wisteria lampshade, to most observers, would represent a significant accomplishment. Yet the Lamp Shop at Tiffany Studios manufactured the model in a production line type of operation through many years, each a masterpiece in its virtuoso craftsmanship and artistry. And whereas no tally was compiled, finally, of the total produced, the fact that over fifty Wisterias are known to exist today suggests that perhaps twice that number were made, a feasible projection when consideration is given to the severe attrition rate for all Tiffany lamps during the many years they were deemed passé and summarily tossed into the trash or stripped for their lead content.

And if one considers, further, that the Wisteria was only one of a host of popular models - there are at least as many examples of both the 22-inch Peony and Dragonfly lampshades in existence today, to mention only two other perennial favorites - the numbers are simply overwhelming.

How could an industrial arts conglomerate, even one of the size and interdisciplinary complexity of the Tiffany Studios, manufacture such a giant and varied selection of goods of such unwavering technical and aesthetic quality?

The chronological list of model numbers produced by the Tiffany Studios that appears in this book’s Index was compiled largely from the two principal Price Lists published through the years by the firm; the first, which remained the core list of its lamp and metalware inventory, on October 1, 1906, and the second, on October 1, 1913, an updated version in which items introduced subsequently were included. A littleknown third Price List served to add information absent from the 1906 and 1913 versions: this is the one published in 1929, the year after the Louis C. Tiffany Furnaces, Inc. division of the firm (including the Corona workshops, with its furnaces), was dissolved and sold to A. Douglas Nash. The 1929 list is, in effect, a checklist of the firm’s outstanding inventory at its closure; as such, its historical value lies today both in the names it provides of those models unidentified on the

7

earlier two price lists, and its inclusion of a selection of items, mainly desk- and table-top pieces, introduced after 1913, and excluded therefore from both of the earlier Lists.

Further details drawn from the various brochures published

by Tiffany Studios through the years – in particular, those that marketed its lamp and metalware production - that were absent from the three principal Price Lists, have likewise been incorporated into the Index. It is hoped that the accumulated information from these publications will provide today’s collector with a comprehensive record of the lamp and metalware items produced by Tiffany Studios, and the nomenclature the firm applied to them. Where recorded, an item’s model number is cross-referenced beneath its illustration in the book to the Index at the rear. For example, the smokers’ stand in illustration 1661 is identified as model #2066 in the Index.

Numerous blanks - both individual model numbers and blocks of numbers - remained in the original Price Lists, however, for reasons that are today not readily discernible; in the case of a single omission within a series of numbers, this suggests an unintended clerical error; in the case of large blocks of unassigned numbers, as between #s 725-799, these were probably reserved for series of models that were never realised. Compounding the problem of identification is the fact that the Lists include duplications - in several instances, two items were assigned the same model number - and other inconsistencies, including typographical errors in which individual digits within model numbers were transposed.

Clearly, the process of assigning numbers to items through the years became increasingly random and uncontrolled.

Some of the firm’s brochures even contain hand-written errata added at the time of publication, such as corrections to the model numbers printed in them. In other instances, brochures contain an addendum sheet that itemizes the errors. One can today easily picture the confusion that could confront the Metal Shop employee(s) responsible for identifying and numbering the various lamp and metalware items as they arrived, perhaps mixed together on palettes, on one of their last stops through the plant, to have the firm’s trademark name and individual model number stamped somewhere on to their surfaces, if, in fact, they were to be signed and numbered (adding to the identification problem is that some models were seldom signed and others never at all). In particular, many candlestick and lamp base models at a glance appear the same, varying in shape and decoration only infinitesimally, no doubt leading to mistaken identifications and subsequent errors in the model numbers they were assigned. A common such error occurred in the case of lamp bases that were

8

fueled either by oil or electricity. Identical in design except for their lighting components, the two were assigned different model numbers, which were often interchanged in error.

A study of the firm’s Price Lists and other publications through the years reveals that its numbering system became increasingly erratic as the number of models it produced accelerated from the early 1900s. New products were often assigned vacant model numbers - any vacant ones - on the 1906 and 1913 Price Lists for no apparent reason; for example, in more than one instance, a single floor lamp was allotted a number in the midst of a series of table lamp bases. Elsewhere, large hanging shades share the same model number with small lampshades made of pleated silk or kapa shell.

A large percentage of the items illustrated here bear no model numbers (many are also unsigned), and cannot therefore be cross-referenced to the Index. This relates especially to the firm’s production of hanging shades and sconces. The reason for this is unclear. Whereas some were ‘special order’ commissions that were not intended for serial production and therefore not assigned a number, others, which were produced in editions and presumably therefore should have been, likewise remained unmarked. Surviving Tiffany Studios archival photographs of the firm’s objects help to fill in the gaps for today’s researcher in those instances where their model numbers were printed, or notated by hand, on the photographs themselves.

It should be noted that in no instance has a description of an item been included in the Index that does not correspond to one for it in original Tiffany Studios literature; in every instance, the nomenclature provided matches the description in one or more of the firm’s publications. To this end, the names used in current marketplace parlance to describe certain models do not appear if they do not correspond to those on the original lists.

On this issue, for example, some readers may be surprised that there are no 16-inch Bellflower or Crocus lampshades in Tiffany’s repertoire: the former corresponds to model #1458, the design for a Conventional Poppy shade; the latter to model #1454, a Tulip Cluster shade. Nor does the name “Acorn” describe in the firm’s literature the common model decorated with a horizontal band of leaves on a geometric ground; the firm’s term for this is “Vine Border” (e.g., model #s 1410, 1420, and 1435). Nor does the name “Hydrangea” appear in Tiffany literature; the large and small lampshades (#s 1538 and 1571) to which the term is today universally applied are correctly termed “Snowball”.

No “Spiderweb” or “Cherry Blossom” lampshade models

Sketch by Leslie H. Nash of the various techniques by which glass was blown into a metal armature to create household objects

Photograph from a Tiffany Studio publication, c.1900, of the Dragonfly lampshade, model #1507, designed by Clara Driscoll, on an unidentified base.

See illustrations 365 and 711

exist either; they are, correctly, “Cobwebs” and “Apple Blossoms”. And so on.

There is no surviving record of how many of the lamp or metalware models on the Tiffany Studios Price List were designed by Mr. Tiffany himself. Probably very few, if any, although he no doubt exercised his right to vet everything that was put into production under his name, as he did with the firm’s window production. So who, then, should be credited with the creation of the seemingly infinite number of lamp and desk top models generated by the firm? On this, the record is practically silent. It was Tiffany’s policy that staff members not be credited individually for their contribution to what was ultimately a collaborative corporate effort, and although a few of the firm’s designers were singled out in the firm’s publications and by the press for individual credit until around 1900, this practice seems to have been discontinued thereafter.

Credit was given in writing, either in the firm’s own publications or in the art press, to Clara Driscoll for the design of the 16-inch dragonfly lamp displayed in 1899 at the Grafton Galleries in London, and the next year at the 1900

Exposition Universelle. One must assume, also, that Joseph Briggs designed many of the firm’s items, including its Fancy Goods, a fact substantiated by surviving photographs of him in his studio surrounded by numerous works-in-progess. Arthur J. Nash, also, who joined the Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company at its inception around 1892, and his son, Leslie H. Nash, who was hired in 1908, must have participated in the design process.

Yet, as one examines the nearly 2,000 models shown in these pages, one must wonder how the identities of the design team who designed them remained such a closelyheld secret, especially after Mr. Tiffany’s death in 1933 and the dissolution of Tiffany Studios in 1937, from which moment, presumably, ex-employees and their families were no longer bound to secrecy on such issues (if, in fact, they ever were). To whom, for example, is credit due for the concept of the Turtle-Back tile, a signature motif in so much of the firm’s artistic repertoire, including its household effects? And who designed the 20-odd desk set patterns, with their encyclopedic array of accessories relating to the now

9

earlier two price lists, and its inclusion of a selection of items, mainly desk- and table-top pieces, introduced after 1913, and excluded therefore from both of the earlier Lists.

Further details drawn from the various brochures published

by Tiffany Studios through the years – in particular, those that marketed its lamp and metalware production - that were absent from the three principal Price Lists, have likewise been incorporated into the Index. It is hoped that the accumulated information from these publications will provide today’s collector with a comprehensive record of the lamp and metalware items produced by Tiffany Studios, and the nomenclature the firm applied to them. Where recorded, an item’s model number is cross-referenced beneath its illustration in the book to the Index at the rear. For example, the smokers’ stand in illustration 1661 is identified as model #2066 in the Index.

Numerous blanks - both individual model numbers and blocks of numbers - remained in the original Price Lists, however, for reasons that are today not readily discernible; in the case of a single omission within a series of numbers, this suggests an unintended clerical error; in the case of large blocks of unassigned numbers, as between #s 725-799, these were probably reserved for series of models that were never realised. Compounding the problem of identification is the fact that the Lists include duplications - in several instances, two items were assigned the same model number - and other inconsistencies, including typographical errors in which individual digits within model numbers were transposed.

Clearly, the process of assigning numbers to items through the years became increasingly random and uncontrolled.

Some of the firm’s brochures even contain hand-written errata added at the time of publication, such as corrections to the model numbers printed in them. In other instances, brochures contain an addendum sheet that itemizes the errors. One can today easily picture the confusion that could confront the Metal Shop employee(s) responsible for identifying and numbering the various lamp and metalware items as they arrived, perhaps mixed together on palettes, on one of their last stops through the plant, to have the firm’s trademark name and individual model number stamped somewhere on to their surfaces, if, in fact, they were to be signed and numbered (adding to the identification problem is that some models were seldom signed and others never at all). In particular, many candlestick and lamp base models at a glance appear the same, varying in shape and decoration only infinitesimally, no doubt leading to mistaken identifications and subsequent errors in the model numbers they were assigned. A common such error occurred in the case of lamp bases that were

8

fueled either by oil or electricity. Identical in design except for their lighting components, the two were assigned different model numbers, which were often interchanged in error.

A study of the firm’s Price Lists and other publications through the years reveals that its numbering system became increasingly erratic as the number of models it produced accelerated from the early 1900s. New products were often assigned vacant model numbers - any vacant ones - on the 1906 and 1913 Price Lists for no apparent reason; for example, in more than one instance, a single floor lamp was allotted a number in the midst of a series of table lamp bases. Elsewhere, large hanging shades share the same model number with small lampshades made of pleated silk or kapa shell.

A large percentage of the items illustrated here bear no model numbers (many are also unsigned), and cannot therefore be cross-referenced to the Index. This relates especially to the firm’s production of hanging shades and sconces. The reason for this is unclear. Whereas some were ‘special order’ commissions that were not intended for serial production and therefore not assigned a number, others, which were produced in editions and presumably therefore should have been, likewise remained unmarked. Surviving Tiffany Studios archival photographs of the firm’s objects help to fill in the gaps for today’s researcher in those instances where their model numbers were printed, or notated by hand, on the photographs themselves.

It should be noted that in no instance has a description of an item been included in the Index that does not correspond to one for it in original Tiffany Studios literature; in every instance, the nomenclature provided matches the description in one or more of the firm’s publications. To this end, the names used in current marketplace parlance to describe certain models do not appear if they do not correspond to those on the original lists.

On this issue, for example, some readers may be surprised that there are no 16-inch Bellflower or Crocus lampshades in Tiffany’s repertoire: the former corresponds to model #1458, the design for a Conventional Poppy shade; the latter to model #1454, a Tulip Cluster shade. Nor does the name “Acorn” describe in the firm’s literature the common model decorated with a horizontal band of leaves on a geometric ground; the firm’s term for this is “Vine Border” (e.g., model #s 1410, 1420, and 1435). Nor does the name “Hydrangea” appear in Tiffany literature; the large and small lampshades (#s 1538 and 1571) to which the term is today universally applied are correctly termed “Snowball”.

No “Spiderweb” or “Cherry Blossom” lampshade models

Sketch by Leslie H. Nash of the various techniques by which glass was blown into a metal armature to create household objects

Photograph from a Tiffany Studio publication, c.1900, of the Dragonfly lampshade, model #1507, designed by Clara Driscoll, on an unidentified base.

See illustrations 365 and 711

exist either; they are, correctly, “Cobwebs” and “Apple Blossoms”. And so on.

There is no surviving record of how many of the lamp or metalware models on the Tiffany Studios Price List were designed by Mr. Tiffany himself. Probably very few, if any, although he no doubt exercised his right to vet everything that was put into production under his name, as he did with the firm’s window production. So who, then, should be credited with the creation of the seemingly infinite number of lamp and desk top models generated by the firm? On this, the record is practically silent. It was Tiffany’s policy that staff members not be credited individually for their contribution to what was ultimately a collaborative corporate effort, and although a few of the firm’s designers were singled out in the firm’s publications and by the press for individual credit until around 1900, this practice seems to have been discontinued thereafter.

Credit was given in writing, either in the firm’s own publications or in the art press, to Clara Driscoll for the design of the 16-inch dragonfly lamp displayed in 1899 at the Grafton Galleries in London, and the next year at the 1900

Exposition Universelle. One must assume, also, that Joseph Briggs designed many of the firm’s items, including its Fancy Goods, a fact substantiated by surviving photographs of him in his studio surrounded by numerous works-in-progess. Arthur J. Nash, also, who joined the Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company at its inception around 1892, and his son, Leslie H. Nash, who was hired in 1908, must have participated in the design process.

Yet, as one examines the nearly 2,000 models shown in these pages, one must wonder how the identities of the design team who designed them remained such a closelyheld secret, especially after Mr. Tiffany’s death in 1933 and the dissolution of Tiffany Studios in 1937, from which moment, presumably, ex-employees and their families were no longer bound to secrecy on such issues (if, in fact, they ever were). To whom, for example, is credit due for the concept of the Turtle-Back tile, a signature motif in so much of the firm’s artistic repertoire, including its household effects? And who designed the 20-odd desk set patterns, with their encyclopedic array of accessories relating to the now

9

Chapter 2: Electric Lamps

Chapter 2: Electric Lamps

252. Base #329

253. Base #329

254. Base #330

255. Base #330

250. Base #334

251. Base #334 (variant) 70

256. Base #331

257. Base #331

258. Base #333, shade #1426 71

Chapter 2: Electric Lamps

Chapter 2: Electric Lamps

252. Base #329

253. Base #329

254. Base #330

255. Base #330

250. Base #334

251. Base #334 (variant) 70

256. Base #331

257. Base #331

258. Base #333, shade #1426 71

Chapter 3: Leaded Shades

Chapter 3: Leaded Shades

674. Shade #1477

672. Shade #1478

675. Shade #1479

676. Shade #1480 673. Shade #1478 (variant) 166

167

Chapter 3: Leaded Shades

Chapter 3: Leaded Shades

674. Shade #1477

672. Shade #1478

675. Shade #1479

676. Shade #1480 673. Shade #1478 (variant) 166

167

Chapter 6: Sconces

Chapter 6: Sconces

1474.

1466.

1467.

1472.

366

1470.

1476.

1468.

1447.

1469.

1475.

1478.

1479.

1471.

1473.

1480.

1481.

1482.

367

Chapter 6: Sconces

Chapter 6: Sconces

1474.

1466.

1467.

1472.

366

1470.

1476.

1468.

1447.

1469.

1475.

1478.

1479.

1471.

1473.

1480.

1481.

1482.

367

ISBN: 978-1-78884-030-9

ËxHSLHSIy840309zv;:*:*:!:+ £75.00/$99.00

www.accartbooks.com