Tiffany Studios

Private Collection, Vermont

Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1985

William Feldstein, Jr. and Alastair Duncan, The Lamps of Tiffany Studios, New York, 1983, p. 73 (for the shade)

Martin Edielberg, Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Nancy A. McClelland and Lars Rachen, The Lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York, 2005, p. 69 (for a watercolor study of the shade design)

Boca Raton Museum of Art, ed., Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artistry in Glass, The Seymour and Evelyn Holtzman Collection, Boca Raton, FL, 2007, pp. 9 and 46 (for the present lot illustrated)

Margaret K. Hofer and Rebecca Klassen, The Lamps of Tiffany Studios: Nature Illuminated, New York, 2016, p. 82 (for the shade)

Alastair Duncan, Tiffany Lamps and Metalware, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2019, pp. 233, no. 914 and 915 (for the shade); 229, no. 893-895 (for the base)

Boca Raton Museum of Art, Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artistry in Glass, The Seymour and Evelyn Holtzman Collection, Boca Raton, FL, 2007

Louis Tiffany’s love of flowers and exceptional knowledge of botany was on full display at Laurelton Hall, his Long Island mansion on Oyster Bay. He gladly assumed the role of master landscaper of the entire 600 acres of the state and was responsible for planting hundreds of varieties of flowers, trees and shrubs. Several of these plantings were the basis for the leaded glass lamp shades produced by his companies, including the magnificent example offered here.

Listed in the Tiffany Studios’ 1906 Price Guide as “1538. 24” SNOWBALL, irregular edge $200.00,” it has been frequently assumed that the flower depicted is some species of hydrangea. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, however, has in its collection a watercolor study for the lamp shade that is entitled “Snowball.” It depicts a Viburnum opulus, better known as the European cranberry bush, a shrub admired by Tiffany and he planted several of them on the Laurelton Hall grounds.

The floor lamp offered here features a special order shade, as signified by the inclusion of a dash number on the shade, and is truly exceptional. Clusters of green and blue-mottled opalescent white blossoms are in a wide variety of shapes and stages of growth. Mingled among the blossoms is mottled and yellow-streaked foliage, some comprised of rippled glass, and curvaceous chestnut branches. All of this is presented against a vibrant sapphire and mottled blue background.

The Snowball lamp was in production for only a few years, being discontinued by 1910. A rare and desirable model, this magnificent example would be a noteworthy addition to any collection.