Tag Archive for tiffany lamps

What is a Tiffany Lamp?

May 14, 2011 What is a Tiffany Lamp?



Louis Comfort Tiffany began designing and producing the Tiffany lamps in the late 1880s, and continued until his death in 1933. Everything Tiffany did from concept to finished product was incredibly different from what anyone had done before.

From creating his own colored glass, to being one of the first to produce electric lighting fixtures in conjunction with Thomas Edison himself, there was nothing Tiffany did not do to set himself apart from the rest. Tiffany prided himself in doing a good job, working hard and making products with quality that would last.

The first of his stained glass lamp shades were constructed by soldering pieces of cut, colored glass that was left over from some stained glass windows he had made years earlier.

The technique Tiffany used was called the Copper Foil Method, which allowed the melted copper foil to encase the edge of every piece of glass, creating a lamp shade that consisted of a single, solid wire. A final cleaning was done after the soldering to remove any dust or solder residue and bring out the vibrant colors of the glass pieces.

Today it is very difficult to find an authentic Tiffany lamp, especially with some going for $2 million dollars on the auction block. The authentic Tiffany Lamps are well worth the money some would spend on them.

After all they have lasted over 100 years and for anything made of glass that is quite a feat.

If 2 million big ones is not your cup of tea though, there are many Tiffany-inspired lamps on the market for far less.

Tiffany lamps come in a wide variety of types and design.

There are Tiffany style table lamps that are an absolutely beautiful addition to your living room, family room, or bedroom.

Tiffany style floor lamps will make a bold statement of beauty in your home as well.

You can also find Tiffany hanging lamps, wall sconces, and Tiffany chandeliers to fill any need you have in your home.

There are also many Quoizel lamps like Quoizel Tiffany lamps and Quoizel table lamps that that display the Tiffany style.

Characterized by the stained glass lamp shade and decorative bases, the Tiffany Lamps have beat the test of time and have given us an easy, artistic way to brighten our homes and offices with colorful designs from years past.

Not only was Louis Comfort Tiffany the first to design lamps to become part of the fine art movement called Art Nouveau, but he also developed his own method for staining the glass.

This process of melting down glass and adding various chemicals to create specific colors was patented as Favrile, derived from a French word meaning handcrafted.

It’s no wonder that Louis Comfort Tiffany was successful, as the son of Charles Lewis Tiffany – the founder of Tiffany & Co. the world-renowned jewelry store.

The Tiffany legacy lives on through their dedication to superior products and service.

Amazon provides a wide selection of Tiffany lamps with many items eligible for free shipping right now.


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Flowered Dome Tiffany Lamp Design

March 23, 2011 Flowered Dome Tiffany Lamp Design




Louis Comfort Tiffany, the mastermind behind the famous Tiffany lamps, was an avid gardener. This love of nature became very apparent in his Flowered Dome Design lamps.

The flowered dome designs were extremely intricate, using multiple colors of glass and various shapes and sizes of glass.

Unlike the geometric designs where Tiffany allowed the shapes to guide his designs – the flowered domes where drawn and designed then the glass was cut to fit together like puzzle pieces.

A few of the flowered dome designs simply took a geometric design such as the Plain Squares pattern and added floral designs that circled around the bottom edge. Many of the designs were far more intricate though.

For example the infamous Daffodil and Dragonfly designs are from the Flowered Dome category.

To help explain how intricate some of these tiffany lamp shades were, we will dissect a couple of the patterns, beginning with the Tulip. This shade consists of blue, green, red and purple glass and no two pieces are cut the same.

There are approximately 20 tulips encasing this Tiffany shade, half of which are purple and the other half red. Each tulip has 3-4 petals and over 100 pieces of green glass for the leaves and stems. Lastly there are at least 50 pieces of blue sky.

The Oriental Poppy design is one of the most intricate of the Tiffany flowered domes. This shade has well over 1000 pieces of glass ranging from blues, to reds, to oranges, and to greens.

The only thing that is vaguely simple about this Tiffany design is the single row of geometric rectangles that border the bottom edge – beyond that no two pieces are cut the same and very few are even the same shade as the others.

The process that makes the Tiffany lamp possible is the Copper Foil Method of placing copper foil around every single piece of cut and cleaned glass, then soldering them all together – creating a single wire weld that encompasses the entire shade.

If it were not for this method Tiffany would have never been able to create some of these intricate designs and his famous lamps would not have lasted through the test of time.


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