While doing a little research today on hurricane lamps, I came upon this article on the famous Tiffany lamps. I found it interesting in that I had always assumed that Louis Tiffany only manufactured lamps and jewelry. In fact interior design was his original forte. He designed the interior for the Mark Twain house in Harford, Connecticut and is best known for the work he was commissioned to do at the White House when President Chester Alan Arthur became president and refused to move in until it was redecorated. There he redesigned, repainted and refurnished the State Dining Room, the Entrance Hall, the Blue Room, the Red Room and the East Room. One of the items he added was his Tiffany glass creations to the gaslight fixtures.
It was a little later in his career that he started to design his now famous lamps which at the time were made from jelly jars and an assortment of colored glass from bottles. It wasn’t until 1893 that he actually built his first factory that was originally called the Stourbridge Glass Company and later named Tiffany Glass Furnaces in Queens New York. In 1900 at the Exposition Universelle hosted in Paris, France, he recieved a gold medal for his stained glass windows The Four Seasons. Tiffany Interiors also used a considerable amount of mosaics in their designs.
In 1902 Louis Tiffany became the first Design Director for Tiffany & Co., the jewelry company founded by his father. Unfortunately Tiffany Studios declared bankruptcy in 1933. At auctions original Tiffany lamps can claim prices in the six figures.
Most fortunately, today, Dale Tiffany is well-known for manufacturing Tiffany-styled lamps and hurricane lamps that are very high-quality reproductions of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s designs.
You can find some examples of Dale Tiffany’s work on some of our other pages.
Here’s a copy of the article I mentioned earlier:
TIFFANY LAMPS
Today, you can find genuine Louis Tiffany table lamps, hanging lamps and other fixtures in some of the finest museums and private collections with some fixtures commanding six figures and beyond. Tiffany lamps have come to symbolize one of the most enduring symbols of beauty and timeless design in the world of interior design. Although Louis Comfort Tiffany was extremely talented and had several successful careers, his eclectic glass art lamps and other lighting fixtures remain his most memorable creations. The most compelling feature of Tiffany style lamps is their stunning use and display of high quality art glass. Classic designs by Louis Tiffany include the Hanginghead Dragonfly, Wisteria, and Koi and they were inspired by his love of Nature and the desire to beautify the home with color and vitality. The art glass was hand cut on the original Tiffany lamps and assembled into their designs using the Copper Foil Method first perfected by Louis in the late 19th century. Because of the unique nature of the manufacturing process and the use of hand cut art glass, each and every Tiffany lamp and fixture was a one-of-a-kind original despite the fact that they were still manufactured in factory settings. Tiffany style lamps will gently diffuse the illumination as it passes through the colored shade so that the surrounding décor is imbued with a soothing ambiance and beautiful color.
Tiffany lighting undoubtedly elevates any decorative scheme but the effect is greatly enhanced when you add balance to the lighting scheme using complementary fixtures. This will help unify the space and create a more compelling decorative effect so be sure to complement your Tiffany fixtures with others made in the same style and color scheme.
Louis Tiffany and his wonderfully inventive and beautiful lamps ultimately became too popular and his company ultimately had to declare bankruptcy. For decades, no new stained glass lamps were made and those remaining began to dwindle to the point that only collectors could afford to Tiffany lamps. Now, however, there are companies making high quality Tiffany lamp reproductions and original stained glass fixtures using the same materials and Copper Foil method used by Louis Tiffany to make his original masterpieces.
You can find these discounted elegant Tiffany lamps at www.LampsByTiffany.com
Article from articlesbase.com
If you’re interested in a little more reading and some beautiful pictures of Tiffany’s work, you might be interested in this book.
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