Property from a Distinguished West Coast Collection
Tiffany Studios
A Rare Seven-Piece “Pond Lily” Desk Set
Auction Closed
December 8, 07:38 PM GMT
Estimate
70,000 - 90,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Property from a Distinguished West Coast Collection
Tiffany Studios
A Rare Seven-Piece “Pond Lily” Desk Set
circa 1905
comprising an inkstand with interior period clear glass liner, letter rack, calendar frame, pen tray, rocker blotter, and a pair of blotter ends
patinated bronze
blotter ends, inkstand, calendar frame, pen tray and rocker blotter each impressed TIFFANY STUDIOS/NEW YORK; the inkstand, pen tray, rocker blotter and blotter ends further impressed with firm's respective model numbers
blotter ends: 20⅝ x 5¼ in. (52.4 x 13.3 cm) each
Brunk Auctions, Asheville, North Carolina, November 4, 2006, lot 165
The Geyer Collection
Sotheby's New York, The Geyer Collection: Masterworks of Tiffany and Prewar Design, December 11, 2018, lot 4
Acquired from the above by the present owner
The Geyer Collection
Sotheby's New York, The Geyer Collection: Masterworks of Tiffany and Prewar Design, December 11, 2018, lot 4
Acquired from the above by the present owner
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, New York, 2007, p. 80
William R. Holland, Tiffany Desk Sets, Atglen, PA, 2008, pp. 224-226 (for the present lot illustrated)
Alastair Duncan, Tiffany Lamps and Metalware, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2019, p. 533, nos. 2133-2136
William R. Holland, Tiffany Desk Sets, Atglen, PA, 2008, pp. 224-226 (for the present lot illustrated)
Alastair Duncan, Tiffany Lamps and Metalware, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2019, p. 533, nos. 2133-2136
The Pond Lily desk set, with its remarkable vocabulary of natural forms, is one of the most striking designs from Tiffany Studios. Lily pads, flower buds, dragonflies, and moths are gathered here to create a distinctive aquatic habitat depicted across a range of bronze desk objects. Unlike most of Tiffany Studios’ designs which are to some degree conventionalized, here the elements are fully modeled in low and high relief. One wonders who should be credited with these designs. It would be reasonable to speculate that it might have been Tiffany himself who made a preliminary suggestion or, more likely, one of the craftsmen from the metals department in Corona. It could also have been the creation of one of the workers in Clara Driscoll’s glass cutting department in Manhattan, for although the women were primarily involved with glass-related objects, they too created bronze objects: there is a telling passage in one of Driscoll’s letters in which she refers to carving a plaster model that she had brought with her to a seaside cottage, so as to work on it while away from the New York studio.
The financial success of Tiffany Studios was dependent on the sale of luxury goods such as this set at Christmas and Easter. These gifts were both functional and beautiful, fulfilling William Morris’ dictum, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” Yet, as stunning as this desk set may be, only three extant sets are known. Two, including this one, have a rich brown and green patina, and the third has a gold doré finish. The rarity of the Pond Lily set stands in stark contrast to the boundless number of other, more popular desk sets such as Pine Needles (Etched Metal), Grapevine, Zodiac, and Bookmark.
It is likely that the Pond Lily desk set was designed in the first years of the 20th Century and only remained in production for a few years. The richness of its naturalistic design and the choice of its principal botanical reference recall the two bronze lamp bases, one with fully modeled lily pads and the other with crabs, that the firm introduced by 1898. This desk set was probably introduced a few years later. The model numbers stamped under each of the pieces—a series going from 2080 on the blotter ends to 2089 for the rocker blotter—suggest that it was created a year or two after 1900 when standardized model numbers were introduced. The Pond Lily set appears on the 1906 Price List, but there is no mention of it on the 1910 list, not even as a discontinued design. The model is a tour de force within the firm’s fancy goods line, demonstrating their early mastery of sculpting and casting.
—Martin Eidelberg
The financial success of Tiffany Studios was dependent on the sale of luxury goods such as this set at Christmas and Easter. These gifts were both functional and beautiful, fulfilling William Morris’ dictum, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” Yet, as stunning as this desk set may be, only three extant sets are known. Two, including this one, have a rich brown and green patina, and the third has a gold doré finish. The rarity of the Pond Lily set stands in stark contrast to the boundless number of other, more popular desk sets such as Pine Needles (Etched Metal), Grapevine, Zodiac, and Bookmark.
It is likely that the Pond Lily desk set was designed in the first years of the 20th Century and only remained in production for a few years. The richness of its naturalistic design and the choice of its principal botanical reference recall the two bronze lamp bases, one with fully modeled lily pads and the other with crabs, that the firm introduced by 1898. This desk set was probably introduced a few years later. The model numbers stamped under each of the pieces—a series going from 2080 on the blotter ends to 2089 for the rocker blotter—suggest that it was created a year or two after 1900 when standardized model numbers were introduced. The Pond Lily set appears on the 1906 Price List, but there is no mention of it on the 1910 list, not even as a discontinued design. The model is a tour de force within the firm’s fancy goods line, demonstrating their early mastery of sculpting and casting.
—Martin Eidelberg
