Images of the natural world were popular on stained-glass lamps.
The early 20th century was considered a golden age for the manufacture of fine stained-glass lamps for the home. The premier artisan of the time was Louis Comfort Tiffany, a painter and creator of stained-glass windows, who decided to solder bits of leftover glass together to create mini versions of his famed windows. Tiffany's impact on the design society was so great that today stained-glass lamps in general are referred to as Tiffany-style lamps.
Origins
Stained glass had been used in churches since A.D. 1000, but it wasn't until about 1885 that Louis Comfort Tiffany, a painter and stained-glass window designer, began producing stained-glass lamps. Tiffany made the lampshades by fitting hundreds of hand-cut glass shapes, mostly discarded pieces from his stained-glass panels, into lead enclosures at first, then later into enclosures made of copper foil, according the Association of Stained Glass Lamp Artists.
Most early stained-glass lamps were oil or kerosene and had urn-type bases and uncapped shades. Some early Tiffany lamps were gas, but when a chance collaboration with Thomas Edison--the two met while designing the electric lighting for the first movie theater in New York City--inspired Tiffany to create the first stained-glass lamps using the new filament light bulb, many gas models were converted.
Historians estimate the majority of the 100,000-plus Tiffany stained-glass lamps ever made were produced between 1895 and 1920. By 1904, other companies, such as Duffner & Kimberly, Bradley and Hubbard, Handel, Pairpoint and Chicago Mosaic, as well as American Arts and Crafts designers Frank Lloyd Wright and Gustav Stickley, jumped on the stained-glass lamp bandwagon.
With the onset of WWII, the popularity of stained-glass lamps waned, only to experience a revival in the 1960s and '70s that continues to this day.
Styles
Most original stained-glass lamps were created in the French Art Nouveau style of the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Art Nouveau style commonly integrates images of the natural world with bold colors. Some Art Nouveau-style lamp bases were made to look like vines, tree roots or lily pads. Stained-glass lamps created in the Arts and Crafts style, which arose as a counterpoint to Art Nouveau, featured stained-glass shades in geometric patterns, muted colors and squared-off bases made of wood or ceramic.
Composition
Stained glass is made by melding colored enamels to pieces of glass and firing them at high temperatures. Historically, translucent and opalescent stained glass were the two types of glass used to create the original stained-glass lamps. Translucent glass was used to interpret a single image and/or a specific color. Opalescent glass, which was developed and patented by a contemporary of Tiffany, John LaFarge, also a stained-glass artist, was used to produce a multicolor effect.
Designers
Louis Comfort Tiffany is credited with being the first artisan to produce stained-glass lamps. It is said the inspiration for the lamps came when Tiffany realized the immense impact of daylight streaming through colored glass--as with his stained-glass windows--could be re-created using artificial light. Moreover, experts believe Tiffany regarded the lamps as a way to expand his reach beyond churches and public buildings into the homes of average, albeit wealthy, Americans.
Besides Tiffany, American architect Frank Lloyd Wright and furniture designer Gustav Stickley also created stained-glass lamps during the early 1900s. Other makers, such as Duffner and Kimberly, Handel and Bradley and Hubbard, concentrated on making lamps that mimicked the Art Nouveau styles that were wildly popular at the time.
Colors and Patterns
Over a span of 20 years, Tiffany invented four patented types of glass that allowed him to create bolder colors and a wider range of textures. At the height of his popularity, Tiffany had more than 5,000 colors at his disposal.
By 1906, Tiffany Studios offered 125 different patterns of stained-glass lamps. Favorites included the Geometric group, which featured triangles, squares, rectangles and ovals; the Irregular Upper and Lower Border lamps, which had an edge that simulated a branch, tree or shrub; and the Transition to Flowers group, which featured the most recognizable Tiffany patterns: flowers, dragonflies, spiders with webs, butterflies and peacock feathers.
Many of Frank Lloyd Wright's so-called Prairie lamps boasted patterns inspired by the sumac plant, which grew wild near Wright's home in Illinois. Gustav Stickley's Mission-style stained-glass lamps featured colorful geometric patterns and minimalist floral patterns in muted tones of tan, yellow and white.
