The History Behind Tiffany Lamp Shades

Do you know what happened when James Watt discovered the power of steam? Do you know what happened when Einstein worked through huge fuzzy numbers to arrive at the conclusion that creating matter or destroying it is not at all impossible? Both these magnificent discoveries were followed by the revolution, and the revolution brought about a change so drastic for the human pea-mind to grasp. The industrial revolution changed the colonial world, whooshed up Britain to the apex, while Einstein’s discovery erased Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the face of the earth.

Okay, now this is a less drastic situation that changed perhaps not a nation or the world- but the very inception of a beautiful idea in an artist’s lab went on to beget Europe’s Art Movement that bolstered the American culture and art in the late 19th century. The idea was conceived; an art was born as the labor of dexterous fingers assembled the leftover glass pieces and molded them into glass shades, stained with different colors, and shaped in different styles.

What the artist Louis Tiffany created was not a Frankenstein, but beautiful lamp shades, which you can recognize anywhere as the “Tiffany lamp shade”. It is rather a little sad though, that this name has come about to be generic, referring to all lamps with stained glass shades. The popular use of this name has unfortunately, lost the signature style that Louis Tiffany created with his hands in 1895.

If you blew your top when the smiling salesman mentioned a price for the original Tiffany lamp that you thought was too costly, you missed the reason for the heavy price tag. Why, you ask? Well, you will be aware that the original Tiffany lamps have accrued more than $8 million in public sales. And what is remaining cannot be reproduced. They are the remnants of the hugely remarkable artistic event that hogged the public limelight for a while. Old Louis was a man who didn’t believe in repeating himself. Maybe that is why he never followed the same artistic pattern when he made his lamps. The result: each different Tiffany lamp with its own distinctive style and beauty which is nevertheless unique since it cannot be found anywhere else on earth. His work did not include mass-production as one of the principles, since Louis and few other men under him made only a few lamps.

Manufacturers, such as Meyda Tiffany, that imitate Tiffany’s works, usually follow the same methods while making the lamp shades that Tiffany invented. The pattern is first drawn on a heavy piece of cardboard, and then traced on to the glass. Then the glass is cut, ground smooth, cleaned and finally assembled neatly and soldered with copper foil. There are only about seven unique styles that are reproduced today. One of them, the Irregular Upper and Lower Border lamp, has open work on the edges that gives a realistic effect where tree boroughs and foliages like shrubbery twine round the lamp. Some styles portray sharp geometric signs like circles, squares and triangles. However, more subtle and delicate designs called Transition to Flowers incline more towards nature- the flowers, insects like dragon flies, and spiders nestling in their webs. Some styles have only one type of flower- Lilly or Rose, spread throughout the design, while others have a variety of flowers hugging the lamp shade.

Globe or cone shaped glass lamps are also popularly known, and you will recognize one immediately if you saw it displayed by the window of a shop. So, if you want to add that rich, lush look to your house interiors, you should make a beeline for the Tiffany lamp shades. And with the right combination of the types of lamp shades to match the art decor of your house, you will be able to create a new signature style of yourself in interior design.