TIFFANY STUDIOS | An Important “Trumpet Creeper” Table Lamp

with a "Tree" base

Lillian Nassau, New York
Collection of Warner Leroy, New York, circa 1970
Macklowe Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 2002

Dr. Egon Neustadt, The Lamps of Tiffany, New York, 1970, p. 210
Martin Eidelberg, Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Nancy A. McClelland and Lars Rachen, The Lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York, 2005, p. 110 (for another example from the same series)
Alastair Duncan, Tiffany Lamps and Metalware, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2007, pp. 52 and 68
Martin Eidelberg, Nina Gray and Margaret K. Hofer, A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls, exh. cat., New York Historical Society, 2007, p. 8
Margaret K. Hofer and Rebecca Klassen, The Lamps of Tiffany Studios: Nature Illuminated, New York, 2016, p. 125

Overall very good condition. This lamp is distinguished by its superb, exuberant glass selection. The lamp is comprised by a varied selection of striated, mottled, rippled and translucent glass, imparting the shade with strong visual depth and dynamism. The top of the shade features background glass tiles in an array of blues, including cobalt, sapphire, cerulean, and bright sky blue. The design descends down the shade to the trumpet creeper blossoms, which display a palette of fiery red-orange and yellow, set against a background of translucent fuschia, violet, and indigo glass and accented by bright green leaves. The shade and base are both impressed with the firm's production number, 28277, reinforcing that both components originated together from the time of manufacture. The shade with approximately 35 hairline cracks dispersed throughout, stable, which is a relatively low number in proportion to the vast number of glass tiles which were required to execute this complex and monumental shade. The shade with some extremely light surface soiling concentrated to the contours adjacent to the leadlines. The top bronze armature of the shade and lower branching is finely cast and displays a rich brown patina. With some light surface soiling to the recessed contours of the top reticulated shade armature and minor traces of oxidation throughout. The bronze branching incorporated throughout the top register of the shade is highly sculptural and tactile, and adds great visual interest and dimensionality to the lamp. The "Tree" base displays a rich brown patina and sculptural casting. The patinated surfaces of the base with some occasional light surface scratches, abrasions and gentle rubbing, and with some light surface soiling and oxidation to the recessed contours of the branching consistent with age and gentle use. The base retains its original bronze decorative switch, which is fully functional as a two-way switch. All four electrical sockets appear to be original and undisturbed. A masterful example of this impressive model, displaying the highest artistry of Tiffany's lamp production. The richness and radiance of this lamp's glass selection and coloration is truly mesmerizing when experienced in person.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Louis C. Tiffany was enamored with creeping vines and they played a major role in the landscaping of his two Long Island mansions, The Briars and Laurelton Hall.  It was only natural, therefore, that one of the earliest leaded glass lamps created by Tiffany Studios was the Trumpet Creeper.  First made around 1903, the shape of the Trumpet Creeper shade mimics that of the Wisteria and Grape table lamps which were introduced about the same time.  All three models also have a top comprised of cast open bronzework.  Unlike the other two, however, the Trumpet Creeper features additional thick leading, replicating vines, that descends almost to the irregular lower border. 

The vine (Campsis radicans) is practically tropical in its lushness and, in the example offered here, Tiffany Studios portrayed the plant in all of its radiant grandeur.  In examining the shade, it is sometimes easy to overlook the superior aesthetics of the women responsible for selecting the actual glass.  The glasshouse produced flat glass in an almost infinite number of colors, color combinations and textures, a necessity for their leaded glass window business.  Each glass selector was required to have not only an instinctual grasp of advanced color theory, it was also essential that she had the patience to find the perfect sheet or section of glass that was stored among the hundreds of racks and bins located at the factory. 

Louis C. Tiffany, faced by a strike of his workmen in December 1892, gambled on his belief that women, after receiving the proper artistic training that only he could provide, “possess a more refined appreciation of the subtle differences between tone and tone and at the same time greater taste in their combination.” The shade presented here gloriously validates Tiffany’s prescience.  The large open trumpet-shaped blossoms, in various stages of growth, are dominant and are depicted in rich shades of opalescent red, dark apricot and peach.  The buds and closed blossoms are of lighter matching tones as well as in orange and amber-streaked yellow.  Some of the glass comprising the flowers has a rippled texture that adds to the three-dimensionality of the buds and blossoms.  The verdant leafage, pendant from the descending vines, is almost as striking in its wondrous variety of white- and yellow-tinged greens.  All this on a truly magnificent background of opalescent and transparent glass that gradates from rich ultramarine and purple at the upper portion to violet and finally to amethyst-streaked clear glass near the lower border. 

This shade, from a technical standpoint, was probably easier to make than the Wisteria because of the larger pieces of glass employed.  The glass selection for this Trumpet Creeper, however, took considerably longer as perfectly coordinating the broader range of colors demanded a far greater effort.  The present example is magnificent in its superb painterly interpretation of one of Tiffany’s favorite plants portrayed as dusk approaches.  It is undeniably the finest example of the model known to exist.  Most certainly designed and created by a senior member of the firm's Women’s Glass Cutting Department, this Trumpet Creeper exemplifies the highest artistic achievements of Tiffany's lamp production.

—Paul Doros





[ESSAY BETWEEN TRUMPET CREEPER + WISTERIA]

The Fringe of Living Glory: Tiffany's Flowering Vines

After creating the design for the Wisteria lamp (lot 326), Clara Driscoll went on to design related shades with other floral species but employing the same deep canopy shape as the Wisteria. These new designs included the Trumpet Creeper (lot 327) and Grape, both vines like the Wisteria, and Apple Blossom. It is revealing that on Tiffany Studios’ comprehensive 1906 Price List, the Trumpet Creeper, Grape, and Apple Blossom shades were listed with the notation “Wistaria Block.” In other words, they were formed on the same wooden forms that had been introduced for the Wisteria, thus reasserting the primacy of that model.

Since the discovery of Driscoll’s correspondence with her family, it has become fashionable to credit her alone with many of the lamp designs from Tiffany Studios, not taking into account the contribution of Tiffany himself. It was, after all, his personal credo that decorative designs should be based on natural forms. As he matured he increasingly disdained the traditional Western emphasis on Greco-Roman art and instead turned to Nature. “Nature is always right,” he proclaimed, “Nature is always beautiful.” Thus when Driscoll had the idea of fashioning a lamp shade that mimicked the hanging panicles of wisteria, and a lamp base that echoed its gnarled vine, she did so within an environment that welcomed such tributes to nature.

When Tiffany was describing his home and gardens at Laurelton Halls, he expressed his admiration for the vines that grew on the buildings:

“The creepers frame the openings, giving a charm and graceful unity to everything. They are great travellers, verily—tramps. They go underground, across door-heads, over cornices, stopping up gutters, filling odd corners, doing no end of mischief … What harmonizers! What decorative artists! …Can architectural embellishment, pediment or cornice surpass the fringe of living glory presented by the creepers? Always in style, always exempt from even the dictation of Dame Fashion! Always mellowing, softening, harmonizing whithersoever they go…”

Although these words did not appear in print until 1906, Tiffany’s admiration for vines and their ability to soften architectural forms was registered much earlier, as in the 1880s in a set of transom windows that adorned a bay window in his Manhattan mansion. These transoms, imitating flowering wisteria vines, were probably known to Clara Driscoll who on occasion visited his home. In fact, it could even be that she and her staff executed them. The more important point, however, is that such windows and lamp designs with their “fringe of living glory” represent an idea that was common to Tiffany and his staff. The Wisteria and Trumpet Creeper lamps presented here (lots 23 and 24) remind us that Tiffany was both an inspired artist and horticulturist, and that Clara Driscoll, his capable lieutenant, understood how to translate his vision into reality.

—Martin Eidelberg