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Table lamp, Lily cluster lamp, 1902
Louis Comfort Tiffany
Table lamp, Lily cluster lamp,
Louis Comfort Tiffany,
*1507

Table lamp, Lily cluster lamp,
1902

Louis Comfort Tiffany
*1507
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Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Ausstellungsstrasse 60
8031 Zurich
Museum map
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Toni-Areal, Pfingstweidstrasse 94
8031 Zurich
Pavillon Le Corbusier
Höschgasse 8
8008 Zürich
Museum map
  • Lily cluster lamp Louis Comfort Tiffany Table lamp
  • Lily cluster lamp Louis Comfort Tiffany Table lamp
  • Lily cluster lamp Louis Comfort Tiffany Table lamp
  • Lily cluster lamp Louis Comfort Tiffany Table lamp
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Listen to the text
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The success of the New York-based Art Nouveau artist Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933) is based on the stylistic device of dazzling iridescent glass. The opulent Lily cluster lamp skillfully makes use of this effect while at the same time reflecting the Belle Époque predilection for long-stemmed and strongly scented flowers such as the lily.

For the electrified Lily cluster table lamp, Louis Comfort Tiffany made ten patinated bronze flower stems grow up from lily pads arranged in a circle as the base. They push up energetically from the middle and encircle with their sepal leaves the staggered group of glass calyxes. As lamp shades, the lily blooms filled their function in downright decadent profusion, exuding an air of luxury and good taste. The lamp was produced in variations featuring from three to twenty lampshades, and also as a floor lamp. The glass components were blown in a metal mold and finished by hand. For the original model with eighteen lampshades, Tiffany received the Grand Prix at the First International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Art in Turin in 1902. After studying painting, Louis Comfort Tiffany—the eldest son and heir of the jeweler Charles L. Tiffany—began in the mid-1870s to try his hand at making large glass windows. Based on his experience painting their glass surfaces, he then developed after long years of experimentation his Tiffany favrile glass. This patented method, which chemists and seasoned glass technicians helped Tiffany to invent, involves adding minerals and metallic oxides to the molten glass, resulting in an opalescent glass with iridescent surface. The rainbow effect ideally spoke to the zeitgeist, bringing the company its financial breakthrough. (Sabine Flaschberger)

Tischleuchte, Lily Cluster Lamp, 1902
Entwurf: Louis Comfort Tiffany
Material/Technik: Glas, formgeblasen, matt irisiert; Bronze, patiniert
51.3 × 37 × 35 cm
Donation: Jeanne Eder Schwyzer
Eigentümer: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK
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Literature

Erika Billeter (Hg.), Objekte des Jugendstils. Museum Bellerive, Zürich 1975.

Sigrid Barten (Hg.), Um 1900. Verborgene Schätze aus der Sammlung des Museums Bellerive, Zürich 1999.

Image credits

Tischleuchte, Lily Cluster Lamp, 1902, Entwurf: Louis Comfort Tiffany, Donation: Jeanne Eder Schwyzer
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Vase, 1905, Entwurf: Louis Comfort Tiffany
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Zierglas, 1905, Entwurf: Louis Comfort Tiffany
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Schale, um 1905, Entwurf: Louis Comfort Tiffany
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Schale, um 1905, Entwurf: Louis Comfort Tiffany
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK