AN IMPORTANT 'ELABORATE PEONY' LEADED GLASS AND BRONZE FLOOR LAMP

TIFFANY STUDIOS

Details

AN IMPORTANT 'ELABORATE PEONY' LEADED GLASS AND BRONZE FLOOR LAMP
Tiffany Studios
The domed shade decorated with a profusion of peony blossoms in various states, the blossoms and buds in vivid and subtle shades of cerise, ruby red, salmon, carnation pink, orange and yellow, partially against a striated royal blue-green sky, interspersed with varicolored glass, the blossoms and buds also amidst leafage in emerald green and verdant green, bordered by two bands of mottled pale blue, tag stamped TIFFANY STUDIOS NEW YORK 1903, the floor base cast with pod decoration and raised on four petal feet, stamped TIFFANY STUDIOS NEW YORK 379
70in. (177.8cm.) high, 21½in. (54.6cm.) diameter of shade, with finial

Provenance

Alice Osofsky

Lot Essay

This shade is listed in the Tiffany Studios 1913 price list as model no. "1903 22" Peony, elaborate dome". By comparison with the more common 18" and 22" Peony shades, it would appear that this shade may depict a tree peony as opposed to the more tame herbaceous variety known to most Western gardeners. On further reflection, it would seem likely that Tiffany or one of his designers was remembering John La Farge's windows Peonies Blown in the Wind with Kakemono Border of which at least five were produced between 1882 and 1908. This shade does not represent a static plant as with most of Tiffany's shades, but flowers and leaves in motion in the dramatic palette favored by artists of the Aesthetic Movement and very much typified by those La Farge interpretations of Japanese scroll paintings of peonies.
cf. Henry Adams et al., John La Farge, 1987, p. 221 for an illustration of the window produced for the John Hay house in Washington, D.C.