With over 1,000 design and color options for authentic and replica Tiffany lamps/Tiffany style lamps, it is hard to know where to start and which ones would be the best for your personal style and taste. With Tiffany table lamps and floor lamps, as well as hanging Tiffany lamps, sconces and pendants, there are so many styles and designs to choose from. To try and help with this decision making process I will introduce you to the different categories of Tiffany lamps as well as some of the characteristics of each and some of the various color options that are available.

Tiffany Lamps – Geometric Designs

Geometric Tiffany lamps were designed using glass cut into basic shapes such as squares, triangles, diamonds, parallelograms and rectangles. Most of these lamps were done using only one to two colors of glass, but don’t let that fool you into thinking they are plain or boring. The geometric Tiffany lamps included the Nautilus Seashell, Acorn, Spider web, Parasol, Lotus Leaf, Indian Basket and Turtleback designs. Each of these designs can be found in whites, blues, reds, greens and browns.

If you enjoy symmetric as much as you love color then a geometric design is most likely for you, though do not limit yourself – Tiffany made a great variety of symmetrical designs within the other categories also.

Tiffany Lamps – Flowered Dome Designs

This is one of the areas where Louis Comfort Tiffany’s love of nature and gardening became apparent in his lamp designs. The flowered domes were not limited by geometric shapes or a couple of colors. Challenges were obviously one of Tiffany’s strong points to develop designs as intricate as these. The flowered domes include so many different colors in a single lamp shade that I cannot tell you if they were limited to a specific number of colors or not. Popular designs such as Dragonfly, Peony, Oriental poppy, Bamboo, Apple Blossom, Daffodil, Poinsettia and so many more made up the Flowered Dome Tiffany Lamps.

Though beautiful, many of the flowered dome designs can be viewed as chaotic. Their intricate designs and use of so many types of glass and varying colors may not be well suited for the symmetrically minded.

Tiffany Lamps – Flowered Cones

Similar to the flowered domes on many levels, the flowered cone Tiffany Lamps brought symmetry to the floral designs. The cones also slant down at an angle like most lamp shapes whereas the domes were rounded, draping domes. The Dragonfly, Oriental poppy, and the Peony designs were used in both areas. The Lily Pad, Grape, Water Lily and Arrowroot were exclusive to the cone designs.

Tiffany Lamps – Wisteria Designs

Along with the Dragonfly and Daffodil, the Wisteria design is one of Tiffany’s most popular designs. This design became quite popular because the finished lamp actually looks like a Wisteria tree. The lamp fixture acts as the trunk while the lamp shade acts as the blossoming limbs. Tiffany even added the detail of branches and limbs hanging down by increasing the solder in areas to build up the weld. Even if this design does not suit your needs and style, you cannot help but appreciate the artistic talent that went into designing this work of art. The Wisteria Design also comes in a great variety of colors.

Tiffany Lamps – Irregular Lower Border Designs

Irregular Lower Border refers to the very different lower edges of these Tiffany lamps. Many designs begin very dome like at the top then sharply turn straight downward for the last one to two inches. Some of the Tiffany lamps do not even have a straight bottom edge such as the Cherry Tree and the Laburnum.

Anyone who loves weeping willows, wisteria, or vines will thoroughly enjoy this style of Tiffany Lamp.

Tiffany Lamps – Overview

Many of the designs are also available in hanging and floor lamp models in a wide variety of sizes and heights. Often you can choose which base design you would like to compliment your Tiffany lamp shade. Keep in mind important factors like where will I put it, are there children in the house, pets? Tiffany lamps are expensive, beautiful keepsake pieces of the Art Nouveau movement, you want to make sure it will not only compliment your living space but that your lifestyle will accommodate it.

Tiffany took the concept of the flowered dome designs and made them more symmetrical by adding geometric borders to the tops and bottoms of most of the designs. Many patterns even took a floral design and repeated it around the lamp.
The flowered cones have straight sides stretching down toward a circular shade base. As this cone design was easier to produce than the domes, there were a great deal more of the cone designs manufactured than the domes.

The Lily Pad, Grape, Water Lily and Arrowroot are some of the designs that were exclusive to the Tiffany lamp flowered cones. The Arrowroot design is a classic example of the flowered cone series. Consisting of only five colors this design is able to bend nature into a symmetrical ring. With 16 arrowroot plants lining the shade, each consisting of 6 pieces of cut green glass and a backdrop of white flowers with yellow centers and blue sky peeking through the tops.

The Dragonfly design is one of the most famous Tiffany lamp designs for good reason. Not only is the Dragonfly design beautiful, it is intricate with thousands of tiny pieces of glass welded together to form the wings of dragonflies. From a distance the wings appear to be four pieces of glass laid just right to form the wings. Upon closer inspection though, each wing is made up of about 50 – 100 small pieces of glass, so that the welds form the veins are that barely visible on a real dragonfly’s wings.

Tiffany’s flowered cone designs prove that you can bring together the two very different worlds of nature and symmetry.