A Rare and Important 'Pond Lily' Table Lamp, circa 1903

Details

TIFFANY STUDIOS
A Rare and Important 'Pond Lily' Table Lamp, circa 1903
leaded glass, patinated bronze
26 1/2 in. (67.3 cm.) high, 18 in. (45.7 cm.) diameter of shade
shade with small early tag impressed TIFFANY STUDIOS NEW YORK
base impressed TIFFANY STUDIOS NEW YORK 29555

Provenance

Private American collection;
Christie's New York, Important Works by Tiffany Studios and John La Farge, 9 December 1989, lot 110;
Est-Ouest, Art Nouveau et Art Déco, Collection Tiffany, Gallé, Daum, Icart, Tokyo, 30-31 October 1991, lot 61;
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner.

Literature

For other examples of this model:
E. Neustadt, The Lamps of Tiffany, New York, 1970, back cover, p. 196, pl. 268;
P. Doros, The Tiffany Collection of the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Richmond, 1978, p. 129, pl. 191;
A. Duncan and W. Feldstein, Jr., The Lamps of Tiffany Studios, New York, 1983, pp. 112 and 113;
C. Gwathmey, R. Siegel, 'Architectural Approach: Inventive Spatial Solutions for an Apartment in Manhattan', Architectural Digest, June 1983, p. 154;
A. Duncan, Fin de Siècle: Masterpieces from the Silverman Collection, New York, 1989, pp. 38-39;
A. Cooney Frelinghuysen, Louis Comfort Tiffany at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998, front and back covers, pp. 68, 72 and 74;
R. Koch, Louis C. Tiffany: The Collected Works of Robert Koch, Atglen, Pennsylvania, 2001, front cover, pp. 76-77;
A. Duncan, Louis C. Tiffany: The Garden Museum Collection, Suffolk, 2004, p. 284;
M. Eidelberg, A. Cooney Frelinghuysen, N. McClelland, L. Rachen, The Lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York, 2005, pp. 166-168.

Special Notice

On occasion, Christie's has a direct financial interest in the outcome of the sale of certain lots consigned for sale. This will usually be where it has guaranteed to the Seller that whatever the outcome of the auction, the Seller will receive a minimum sale price for the work. This is known as a minimum price guarantee. This is such a lot.

Lot Essay

Tiffany Studios produced its rare ‘Pond Lily’ leaded-glass table lamp for a
brief period from about 1902 until 1906. We date the present lot, an early
triumph, to 1903 due to the five-digit production number (29555) stamped
on its base. The model was later listed as number 344 in Tiffany’s 1906
catalogue.

A highly collectible form, the ‘Pond Lily’ resides in five permanent museum
collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY), The
Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass (Queens, NY), the Virginia Museum
of Fine Arts (Richmond, VA), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los
Angeles, CA), and the Chrysler Museum of Art (Norfolk, VA). Eight other
known examples are held in private collections.

Among these extant lamps, the present lot is one of the finest due its
artistic glass selection, the significant patina of its bronze base, and the
strong synergy between base and shade, which depicts pond lily stems,
leaves and flowers floating in water. Clara Driscoll (1861-1944), head of
Tiffany's Women’s Glass Cutting Department, would have overseen the
glass selection; women from her studio (informally known as “Tiffany Girls”),
would have executed the shade.

Inspired by the flora of Louis Comfort Tiffany's famed lily pond at The
Briars, his country house on Long Island, the ‘Pond Lily’ was a natural
evolution from the blown-glass shades of Tiffany's popular ‘Lily’ lamp, a
highlight of his 1902 Turin Exposition display.

This lot previously sold 9 December 1989 at Christie’s New York, where
it fetched $550,000, then the world auction record for a work by Tiffany
Studios.

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