Although popularly known as the “Hanging Head Dragonfly,” the official Tiffany Studios Price List simply referred to this model as “22 in. Dragonfly, Holden.” Yet “hanging head” well describes the distinctive element of this shade—the way in which the insect’s heads and wings descend below the edge of the domed shade to create an undulant, organic silhouette.

Clara Driscoll designed her first leaded shade with dragonflies in 1899, and we can presume (although not with certainty) that the subsequent dragonfly models were devised or at least supervised by her. The fairly large number of variants, both as table lamps and hanging fixtures, suggests that the public was delighted with these novel designs. The lamp offered here, listed in the 1906 Price List but probably introduced several years earlier, was evidently so popular that in 1910, when the firm instituted a major cutback and stopped production of most lamps, this design remained in production.

The distinguishing feature of this particular shade is its extraordinary harmony of color. Whereas most Hanging Head Dragonfly shades combine several strong colors, this example is like James McNeill Whistler’s Nocturne in Blue and Gray. In the lower portions of the shade, the background glass is a mottled, soft dove blue with hints of lime green and then in the upper region it imperceptibly changes to an icy pale blue. The effect is of rippling water and rising mist. The large cabochon jewels, like opals and moonstones, oscillate in varying shades of radiant blue and violet, changing with one’s view point. This effect was achieved by adding a second layer of ultramarine blue glass behind the opalescent cabochons. While such “plating” (the double layering of glass) was commonly employed in Tiffany’s leaded windows, it only rarely was used for lamp shades. Some of the round jewels in this shade are a bright sapphire blue and they, together with the insect’s rich blue eyes and the blue-green jewel tones of the dragonflies’ wings, introduce accents of bright color to the moody Whistlerian palette.

Who was responsible for this striking coloration? Certainly it was not the Tiffany Girl who acted as the selector for this shade’s glass; that would not have been within her purview. Such responsibility lay with Clara Driscoll, but did this happen in an especially inspired moment? Or was it a special order commissioned by a client swayed by Aesthetic aspirations? However one explains the genesis of this brilliant idea, the striking beauty of this shade cannot be denied.

Martin Eidelberg