Tiffany Studios

Macklowe Gallery, New York
The Shedlarz Collection, 2001
Sotheby's New York, December 12, 2018, lot 322
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Robert Koch, Louis C. Tiffany: Rebel in Glass, New York, 1964, p. 186 (for a workshop sample panel)
Robert Koch, Louis C. Tiffany: The Collected Works of Robert Koch, Atglen, PA, 2001, p. 116 (for a workshop sample panel)
David A. Hanks, Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection, New York, 2013, cover and pp. 21 and 57
Alastair Duncan, Tiffany Lamps and Metalware, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2019, p. 258, no. 1009

Tiffany Studios designed a great variety of hanging chandeliers inspired by vines, including woodbine, clematis, nasturtium, and more. The nature of these vines’ growth, always climbing, weaving, and creeping, made them perfectly suited to serve as decorative motifs for a chandelier that would hang from above. The octagonal format of the model was also suited to the inclusion of a trellis within the design, which gives the appearance of order and structure to the plant’s otherwise organic and untamed evolution.

The present “October Nightshade” chandelier is one of the rarest examples of these chandelier models, further distinguished by its painterly palette. Bright red berries bloom amongst the vine’s emerald green leaves. These leaves are wonderfully irregular and dynamic, capturing the sensation of wild natural growth as the vine sprawls across the trellis. Finally, between the trellis and expansive vines, tiles of translucent cobalt blue and pale-yellow glass evoke a cool autumnal sunset peeking through, poetically foretelling a change in season.