This early Tiffany Lamp features a rare Irregular Tulip Shade, an early leaded glass shade likely designed by Clara Driscoll for Tiffany Studios around 1900.
This example of the shade features dramatic and early Tiffany Glass in deeply saturated tones. A series of tulips, formed by deeply saturated magenta glass with streaks of white throughout, rise up from the lower edge of the shade on thin stems surrounded by leaves formed by variegated green glass streaked with deep blue. The opaque glass used for the flowers and foliage contrast the translucency of the glass utilized for the background, which is streaked throughout with shades of blue, purple, pink, and green.
The Irregular Tulip shade is one of two variations of leaded glass shades depicting tulips designed by Driscoll during this early period of development; the second, the Tulip Cluster Shade, was included by Tiffany Studios in their display at the 1902 World’s Fair in Turin. These two early shade models, both featuring more stylized flowers, were both listed in Tiffany Studios’ 1906 Price List; by 1910, both models had been phased out in favor of a more naturalistically rendered floral motif that was more readily adapted to 16-inch, 18-inch, and 22-inch diameter shade models. Comparatively fewer examples of the Irregular Tulip and Tulip Cluster are known today.
Height: 22 inches (55.9 cm)
Diameter: 16 inches (40.6 cm)
Reference:
Martin Eidelberg, Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Nancy A. McClelland and Lars Rachen, “The Lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany,” New York, 2005, p. 143-147