This rare Tiffany Lamp features a very early example of a Tiffany Studios leaded glass shade which has become popular among modern Tiffany collectors under the name “Acorn,” though records from the company indicate that this pattern was referred to by the company as the “Vine Border” shade.
The form of this extremely rare shade is an unusual slightly flattened version of the rounded domed form of the “Vine Border” shade that Tiffany Studios would put into regular production throughout the first two decades of the twentieth century. The background is formed by gridded early Tiffany glass in a rich shade of emerald green with heavy mottling. Near the lower edge of the shade, a band of horizontal decoration depicting a pattern of alternating pointed leaves in soft green glass streaked with orange interrupts the geometric background. The heavy opacity of the background is pleasantly contrasted by the translucency of the glass used throughout the foliate border.
The shade rests on an early bronze Tiffany Lamp base with three thin arms to support the shade. The narrow urn forming the bulk of the base, which features a thin horizontal band of Celtic interlace motif, indicates that this was an early design that was originally intended to operate on kerosene or oil fuel. This example has been converted for electricity.
This type of Tiffany Lamp shade design, in which the majority of the shade is formed by a geometric grid of glass divided by a horizontal border of simplified and repetitive motifs, is considered to be a “geometric” design and as such the glass selection would most likely have been handled by the men working at Tiffany Studios; the “Tiffany Girls” worked on more complex floral and decorative motifs which required a finer sensitivity for color and glass selection.
Diameter: 16 inches (40.6 cm)
Height: 21 ½ inches (54.6 cm)