Elizabeth Eaton Burton

Gustav Stickley, "Nature and Art in California," The Craftsman, vol. VI, no. 4, July 1904, p. 387 (for a related example)
Hand-Wrought Electric Lamps and Sconces from the Studio of Elizabeth Eaton Burton, Santa Barbara, CA, circa 1920, n.p. (for related examples)
Timothy J. Andersen, Eudorah M. Moore and Robert W. Winter, eds., California Design 1910, Salt Lake City, 1974, p. 83 (for a related single-light example)
Kenneth R. Trapp, The Arts and Crafts Movement in California: Living the Good Life, exh. cat., Oakland Museum, 1993, p. 15 (for a related three-light example)
David Cathers and Alexander Vertikoff, Stickley Style: Arts and Crafts Homes in the Craftsman Tradition, New York, 1999, p. 148 (for a related three-light example)
Michael Redmon, ed., My Santa Barbara Scrap Book, A portrait of the Artist Elizabeth Eaton Burton, Santa Barbara, 2011, n.p. (for related examples)
David Cathers et al., Arts and Crafts Lighting from the Collection of the Two Red Roses Foundation, Vol. 4, Palm Harbor, FL, 2014, pp. 24 and 33

Born in Paris in 1869, Elizabeth Eaton Burton emigrated to California at a young age with her father Charles Frederick Eaton. An artist and landscape designer, Eaton imparted to his daughter a knowledge of drawing and a passion for horticulture. Both proved equally pivotal to her career as a designer working in the Arts and Crafts style. Surrounded by the native plants of California as well as non-native plants that her father imported, Burton developed a distinct body of work incorporating natural motifs and materials, the most signature of which were her lighting designs. The present lot is a rare five-light example of her lily-inspired table lamps. Patinated copper is shaped into a delicate lily pad and exquisite abalone shells serve as the flower petals. In an advertisement for her work, Burton explained, "the combination of Shells with their beautiful natural coloring and opalescent tints, and hand-wrought Metal, is particularly effective in Decorative Lighting." Expertly crafted from these materials into a design that is simple yet exquisite, the lamp embodies the key principles of the Arts and Crafts movement.