Tiffany Lamps
Our extensive Tiffany lamp inventory features Art Nouveau Tiffany lamps from just before 1900 through the end of
Tiffany Studios New York production in 1928. Our original antique Tiffany lamps are signed Tiffany Studios New York or Tiffany Furnaces, for lamps made from 1919-1928. Together with Thomas Edison, Tiffany created decorative and stage lighting for New York’s Lyceum Theater, the first in the world to have electric illumination. He was also commissioned to decorate rooms at the White House and went on to create distinctive metalwork and blown-glass lighting as part of his elaborate interiors for New York homes. These events were the precursors to the leaded glass lamps that are recognized today as Tiffany lamps. Geometric Tiffany lamps reflect an Arts and Crafts style, while Tiffany lamps adorned with peonies, poppies, and daffodils evoke an Art Nouveau aesthetic. Tiffany “Moorish” chandeliers grew out of his fascination with Orientalism and the culture of the Middle East. Tiffany Dragonfly lamps are both influenced by Japonism and Tiffany’s close study of nature. Tiffany lily lamps, made with his golden iridescent “Favrile” glass, are a synthesis of naturalism and lighting as Modernist sculpture. We have the largest inventory of authentic antique Tiffany lamps for sale in the world. All of our Tiffany lamps as well as our entire antiques collection are available for viewing in our Madison Avenue gallery.
A Tiffany Studios New York "Geometric" leaded glass and bronze table lamp. The lamp features a “geometric” shade comprised amber/orange mottled glass. The shade sits atop a gilt bronze “stick” View Product
A Tiffany Studios New York "counter balance" Favrile glass and bronze desk lamp. The yellow, orange and gold opalescent shade is adorned with prunts and rests upon a green and brown patinated View Product
A Tiffany Studios New York "counter balance" Favrile glass and bronze floor lamp. The yellow shade intaglio is carved with dragonflies. View Product
A Tiffany Studios New York “Acorn” glass and bronze table lamp. The shade features a mottled orange, yellow and green acorn vine against a mottled green glass geometric ground and sits atop a View Product
A Tiffany Studios New York patinated bronze "counter balance" desk lamp with intaglio finish. View Product
A Tiffany Studios New York "Dragonfly" leaded glass and patinated bronze table lamp. Featuring mottled red and orange dragonfly bodies, mottled blue, cyan and mauve wings with multi colored eyes, View Product
Louis Comfort Tiffany was the eldest son of Charles Lewis Tiffany who founded Tiffany & Company in 1837. As an artist of many media and decorative arts, his lengthy career, spanning from the 1860's to the early 1930's, influenced several design periods and was highly experimental. The primary proponent of Art Nouveau in America, Tiffany's work exemplified the movement's aims to develop a new aesthetic based in nature. Tiffany forged a unique style that combined superb craftsmanship with a love of natural forms and brilliant color. In this vein, his luminous glass designs combined technical innovations with the highest artistry infusing everyday objects with beauty inspired by nature. He sought to maximize the potential of the medium itself, developing new methods resulting in iridescent finishes, lava glass, and his most important innovation, Favrile glass. Leaded-glass windows paved the way for Tiffany lamps both in technique and subject matter. While leaded-glass windows depended on natural light for illumination, lamps could be illuminated by fuel or electricity. September 4, 1882 marked the advent of incandescent lighting for New York homes as part of the Pearl Street project. Tiffany's creativity peaked as Art Nouveau burst onto the scene in Europe in the mid-1890’s. Far from resulting in a simplified version of Art Nouveau themes, Tiffany's glass is invariably complex in composition and appearance. What began as formal interpretations of nature grew into a love of lush naturalism, and as his artistic career progressed, he became increasingly preoccupied by depictions of landscapes and flowers. Tiffany Studios produced thousands of lamps in many shapes and designs. Variations in the design, shape and type of glass promoted uniqueness and no two Tiffany lampshades are identical. Tiffany provided a host of options for his lampshades, including table and floor bases, hanging hardware, and wall sconces. His lampshades created floral patterns, dragonflies, peacock feathers, and varying geometric shapes all within the naturalistic genre. His lily lamps follow nature's logic, with petals and leaves on the shade and stems, and pond lilies on the base. Early institutional collectors of Tiffany glass include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and numerous other museums around the world. In the 1950's scholars and collectors began rediscovering Tiffany's work, and resurrected his enduring reputation as an artist, innovator, and pioneer of Modernism.