Wisteria Table Lamp

The iconic Wisteria Lamp is one of the rare Tiffany Lamp models designed and retailed by Tiffany Studios as a single unit, pairing a highly complex leaded glass shade depicting pendant wisteria blossoms with the naturalistic Tree Trunk base. This exceptional design evocatively captures the abundance of the flowering vine in leaded glass and richly patinated bronze.

Designed around 1900 by Clara Driscoll, head of the Women’s Glass Cutting Department at Tiffany Studios, the Wisteria Table Lamp was one of the most complex shades ever produced by the company, comprising over 1,000 hand-cut pieces of Tiffany glass masterfully selected and arranged.

This fine example depicts alternating clusters of lavender and soft blue wisteria blossoms formed by mottled opalescent Tiffany glass. These flowers, interspersed with green leaves, appear to cascade from a series of thick openwork bronze “branches” at the crown, an evocative feature intended to both ventilate the heat from early incandescent lightbulbs and provide structure to the shade. The irregular lower edge of the shade is formed by the dangling panicles of the wisteria, interspersed with transparent soft blue “confetti” or “foliage” Tiffany Glass, featuring inclusions of pale green, gold, mauve, and the occasional thread of deep brown, alluding to the layering of flower, foliage and sky.

A related Wisteria Lamp in the collection of the New-York Historical Society, previously in the collection of famed Tiffany collector Dr. Egon Neustadt (N84.130.1), features similar glass selection; this lamp was illustrated on the cover of the groundbreaking 2007 publication A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls.

In contrast with earlier designs for Tiffany lamps, which necessitated bulbous bases to hold oil canisters, the Wisteria Lamp ran on a relatively new technological achievement in the early 20th century: electricity. The power switch is nestled into the roots of the Tree Trunk base, while the narrow stem conceals the wiring.

In 1902, Tiffany Studios was awarded a grand prize for the Wisteria Lamp at the Prima Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte Decorativa Moderna, in Turin.

Driscoll designed the Wisteria Lamp at the behest of Louis Comfort Tiffany, who frequently incorporated the dramatic purple blossoms into his designs for important private and public commissions. Tiffany’s famous homes on Madison Avenue and 72nd Street in New York City and later at Laurelton Hall in Oyster Bay both featured impressive windows based on the Wisteria, now respectively housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, Winter Park.

This exceptional original Tiffany Lamp is signed on both the shade and base.

Height: 27 inches (68.9 cm)
Diameter: 18 inches (45.7 cm)

References:

Martin Eidelberg, Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Nancy A. McClelland and Lars Rachen, The Lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York, 2005, pp. 106-107
Martin Eidelberg, Nina Gray and Margaret K. Hofer, A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls, London, 2007, p. 48