TIFFANY STUDIOS

Details

A FINE 'WISTARIA' LEADED GLASS AND BRONZE TABLE LAMP
Tiffany Studios
The domed shade shouldered above squared sides and irregular lower border, mottled with intense royal blue and subtle lilac-blue wistaria blossoms, interspersed with opalescent white blossoms, the variegated green and yellow leaves pendant from the pierced network of bronze branches in relief above, the wistaria motif repeated five times, against an impressionistic sky of powder blue, spring green, sunny yellow and dusty rose, the ground highlighted by a profusion of translucent glass, the clear glass with royal blue and mauve-purple striations and with sapphire blue, emerald and pale green striations, the shade stamped at top 22525 once and 2 twice, the tree-trunk base stamped underneath TIFFANY STUDIOS NEW YORK 22525 2 with the Tiffany Glass & Decorating Co. monogram and stamped at top 2 four times
26½in. (67.3cm.) high, 18¼in. (46.4cm.) diameter of shade

Lot Essay

The Wisteria model is described in the Tiffany Studios Price List of 1906 as "Wistaria, lamp and shade, large" at a cost of $400. Deliberately spelled Wistaria by Nuttall, author of the genus, the woody vines are cited as "Wisteria NUTT. Fam. Leguminosae" in the 1916 edition of A Dictionary of Plant Names by H.L. Gerth Van Wijk (see 1971 reprint). The entry for Wistaria in Taylor's 1948 edition of the Encyclopedia Horticulture notes that the genus is named for Caspar Wistar (1761-1818), a professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania, and comments that Wisteria is a later adaptation of and the preferred spelling of the common name.