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Lot Essay
“Color is to the eye, what music is to the ear” – Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany and the Tiffany Studios endeavored to capture the natural world and all its complexities employing one of man’s earliest known made materials: glass. In ancient Egypt, glass was used to make beads, decorative objects and utilitarian vessels. Technologies in glass production took form in experimentation with natural elements and compounds found in local soils which greatly affected the ultimate output. Like these scientists and artisans of histories past, Louis C. Tiffany and his workshops chartered into unknown waters of glass-making techniques in hopes of replicating all the colors that the eye could see.
Tiffany’s fascination and talent with colors were noted since the beginning of his career as a painter. However, they were undoubtedly enhanced by his adventures as a sophisticated amateur horticulturalist. The budding landscape of Laurelton Hall Estate, Tiffany’s Oyster Bay, Long Island, home away from Manhattan, offered grounds for all nature of plant and insect to thrive. Laurelton Hall, while a home for Tiffany and his growing family, also provided a sanctuary for his artist contemporaries and collaborators who also saw the artistry in the natural world and endeavored to capture it in all its splendor, even if a moment could be fleeting. Consider the photography of Agnus Northrop, Tiffany’s close associate whose inquisitive eye helped to define how Tiffany and his artists of the Studio viewed the world, as seen in the photograph of a dragonfly specimen pinned to a board for investigation and study.
For Tiffany, who often used the dragonfly as an inspiration, the shade offered in the present lot is rather unique among the Studios’ body of work. Unlike most other ‘Dragonfly’ shades in the Tiffany Studios production which appear rectilinear, this rare example of the dragonfly appears captured in mid-flight, their curved bodies fluttering around the four glass ‘ponds’. The shade ‘1552’ is not included in the 1906 nor the 1910 Price List, indicating its early conception and possibly noting few to be in existence. In fact, only three examples of this shade have appeared on the market, first in 1980 at Christie’s New York, Magnificent Tiffany Lamps, The Mihalak Collection, 22 March 1980, lot 30 (sold $68,200 with premium). This predominantly blue and green shade eventually sold again at Sotheby’s New York, Highly Important Tiffany Lamps from the Collection of John W. Mecom, Jr., Houston, Texas, 22 April 1995, lot 56 (sold $79,500 with premium). The present lot, a more transparent greenish-white example, was sold at Sotheby’s New York, The Estate of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., Important Art Nouveau and Art Deco, 16 June 1989, lot 426 (sold $77,000 with premium). The lamp sold again Tiffany Lamps From the Warshawsky Corporate Collection, Sotheby’s New York, 5 June 1996, lot 97 (sold $85,000 with premium), from where Ann and Gordon Getty acquired the rare example for their collection. The third example of this shade to come to market was a recent discovery offered from a private collection at Christie’s, New York, 9 December 2022, lot 507 (sold $277,200 with premium).
The intricate pattern, having to accommodate the large ‘ponds’ for the dragonflies to flutter about, dictates an overall octagonal shape to compensate for the glass required. Each ‘pond’ with delicate bands surrounding that integrate the dragonfly heads and four pairs of eyes, the spanned wings bordering and crossing each other, help to create a sense of movement and liveliness. The curving bodies intertwined at the top most rim compliment the movements and is unlike any other shade produced by the Studios. The delicate transparency of the insect wings, in contrast to the green vegetation as registers between the four rippled glass ‘ponds’ undoubtedly came to life with the imagination of the artistically-inclined lover of nature.
Louis Comfort Tiffany and the Tiffany Studios endeavored to capture the natural world and all its complexities employing one of man’s earliest known made materials: glass. In ancient Egypt, glass was used to make beads, decorative objects and utilitarian vessels. Technologies in glass production took form in experimentation with natural elements and compounds found in local soils which greatly affected the ultimate output. Like these scientists and artisans of histories past, Louis C. Tiffany and his workshops chartered into unknown waters of glass-making techniques in hopes of replicating all the colors that the eye could see.
Tiffany’s fascination and talent with colors were noted since the beginning of his career as a painter. However, they were undoubtedly enhanced by his adventures as a sophisticated amateur horticulturalist. The budding landscape of Laurelton Hall Estate, Tiffany’s Oyster Bay, Long Island, home away from Manhattan, offered grounds for all nature of plant and insect to thrive. Laurelton Hall, while a home for Tiffany and his growing family, also provided a sanctuary for his artist contemporaries and collaborators who also saw the artistry in the natural world and endeavored to capture it in all its splendor, even if a moment could be fleeting. Consider the photography of Agnus Northrop, Tiffany’s close associate whose inquisitive eye helped to define how Tiffany and his artists of the Studio viewed the world, as seen in the photograph of a dragonfly specimen pinned to a board for investigation and study.
For Tiffany, who often used the dragonfly as an inspiration, the shade offered in the present lot is rather unique among the Studios’ body of work. Unlike most other ‘Dragonfly’ shades in the Tiffany Studios production which appear rectilinear, this rare example of the dragonfly appears captured in mid-flight, their curved bodies fluttering around the four glass ‘ponds’. The shade ‘1552’ is not included in the 1906 nor the 1910 Price List, indicating its early conception and possibly noting few to be in existence. In fact, only three examples of this shade have appeared on the market, first in 1980 at Christie’s New York, Magnificent Tiffany Lamps, The Mihalak Collection, 22 March 1980, lot 30 (sold $68,200 with premium). This predominantly blue and green shade eventually sold again at Sotheby’s New York, Highly Important Tiffany Lamps from the Collection of John W. Mecom, Jr., Houston, Texas, 22 April 1995, lot 56 (sold $79,500 with premium). The present lot, a more transparent greenish-white example, was sold at Sotheby’s New York, The Estate of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., Important Art Nouveau and Art Deco, 16 June 1989, lot 426 (sold $77,000 with premium). The lamp sold again Tiffany Lamps From the Warshawsky Corporate Collection, Sotheby’s New York, 5 June 1996, lot 97 (sold $85,000 with premium), from where Ann and Gordon Getty acquired the rare example for their collection. The third example of this shade to come to market was a recent discovery offered from a private collection at Christie’s, New York, 9 December 2022, lot 507 (sold $277,200 with premium).
The intricate pattern, having to accommodate the large ‘ponds’ for the dragonflies to flutter about, dictates an overall octagonal shape to compensate for the glass required. Each ‘pond’ with delicate bands surrounding that integrate the dragonfly heads and four pairs of eyes, the spanned wings bordering and crossing each other, help to create a sense of movement and liveliness. The curving bodies intertwined at the top most rim compliment the movements and is unlike any other shade produced by the Studios. The delicate transparency of the insect wings, in contrast to the green vegetation as registers between the four rippled glass ‘ponds’ undoubtedly came to life with the imagination of the artistically-inclined lover of nature.