Tiffany lamp history from 1895

The lamps with Tiffany-style stained glass blinds appeared around 1895 in the United States of America by Clara Driscoll, the story began in part thanks to this woman.

Artist glass designer she worked for more than 20 years for the company Tiffany Studios in New York. It is now considered that it was she who invented the lamps with glass blinds welded with lead.

She created many art nouveau models such as Wisteria lamps, Peonies and the famous Dragonflies lamps. The lampshades used the copper sheet method, this technique requires wrapping the glasses with a copper and then welding the edges with lead.

She was the head of the stained glass cutting and creation department. This department at Tiffany Studios was made up of women, it was then called the "Tiffany Girls".

She collaborated with Alice Carmen Gouvy and Lillian Palmié of talented women, Alice notably made many watercolours of plants and flowers. She was one of the highest paid women in the world, her annual salary reached $10,000 at the time. Clara Driscoll in her studio in Tiffany Studios with her friend Joseph Briggs, 1901.

Image from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Clara Driscoll

Tiffany Studios had a team of women who had large seats.

The women of Tiffany's, on the roof of Tiffany Studios, in 1904 - 1905. Image from the collection of the Museum of American Art "Charles Hosmer Morse".

Tiffany Girls - Image de l'équipe féminine de Tiffany studios

Tiffany table lamps

Table lamps are lighting designed by the artist both for their uses but also for their decorative effects.

Tiffany Studios became famous, not for their window stained glass windows, but for the lamps they designed with stained glass blinds. At that time this unique style of lamps became highly sought after by decorators.

The table lamps that became their best sellers were then available in these different versions:

  • Tiffany office lamps
  • Small Tiffany table lamps
  • Tiffany bedside lamp
  • Tiffany animal lamps (Papillons, turtles, parrots)

Dadofill table lamps created by Clara Drsicoll

Lampe de table Tiffany studios - Histoire

All these lighting models represented the same themes, mostly art deco or art nouveau.

If you want to see large exhibitions of Tiffany lamps and learn more about the history of lamps, you can go and see the New York Historical Society museum where many works are exhibited.

Biography by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

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