Tiffany Studios New York "Vine Border" Plafonnier
This stunning Tiffany Studios "Vine Border" plafonnier features a striking yellow ochre shade with a grape leaf frieze. The vine border pattern was commonly found on Greek red-figure pottery, typically on vessels meant for storing or mixing wine. On such vessels, dionysiac groups of maenads and satyrs would carry grapevine branches and thyrsi, wands wound with grape leaves, carried during festivals and religious ceremonies. The plafonnier is capped with a richly textured turtleback tile. In his twenties, Tiffany was given early access to see the Cypriot antiquities collection of Met Museum director General Luigi Palma di Cesnola. The primitive beauty of the Cyprus' turtle carapace scale rings and bracelets delighted Tiffany, inspiring his turtleback tiles. The "Turtleback" tile was among the earliest innovations at Tiffany Furnaces in Corona New York. A large glass press created the appearance of hand wrought tiles, belying their industrial manufacture. Both the turtleback tile and iridescence distinguished Louis Comfort Tiffany as a luminary of glass innovation.
Item #: L-21484
Artist: Tiffany Studios New York
Country: United States
Circa: 1910
Dimensions: 10" diameter
Materials: Leaded Glass, Bronze
Shade Signed: Tiffany Studios New York
Literature: A. Duncan, Tiffany Lamps and Metalware, Suffolk, 2019, pp. 152, no. 625 (shade)
Item #: L-21484
Artist: Tiffany Studios New York
Country: United States
Circa: 1910
Dimensions: 10" diameter
Materials: Leaded Glass, Bronze
Shade Signed: Tiffany Studios New York
Literature: A. Duncan, Tiffany Lamps and Metalware, Suffolk, 2019, pp. 152, no. 625 (shade)
Tiffany was a man preoccupied with Greco-Roman decor. At only 22, Tiffany and the eminent Hudson River School painter Robert Swain Gifford made trips to the ruins of Pompeii. In the same year that this lamp was produced, Tiffany threw his famed Quest of Beauty pageant for his sixty-eighth birthday. The Greek pageant illustrated the journey of mankind from caveman to cultured artistic civilization. Tiffany spared no expense, spending $10,000 on lights, and hiring a cast of forty-two professional actors. Each tier of the stage was wrapped with "Greek key" patterns while the edge of the stage was wrapped with a wave pattern, in almost perfect mimesis of the lamp we see today.
Tiffany was a man preoccupied with Greco-Roman decor. At only 22, Tiffany and the eminent Hudson River School painter Robert Swain Gifford made trips to the ruins of Pompeii. In the same year that this lamp was produced, Tiffany threw his famed Quest of Beauty pageant for his sixty-eighth birthday. The Greek pageant illustrated the journey of mankind from caveman to cultured artistic civilization. Tiffany spared no expense, spending $10,000 on lights, and hiring a cast of forty-two professional actors. Each tier of the stage was wrapped with "Greek key" patterns while the edge of the stage was wrapped with a wave pattern, in almost perfect mimesis of the lamp we see today.
