Property from a Distinguished West Coast Collection
Tiffany Studios
“Rambling Rose” Table Lamp
Auction Closed
December 8, 07:38 PM GMT
Estimate
140,000 - 180,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Property from a Distinguished West Coast Collection
Tiffany Studios
“Rambling Rose” Table Lamp
circa 1905-1910
with a rare mosaic gourd-form base
leaded glass, mosaic favrile glass, patinated bronze
base and oil canister each impressed TIFFANY STUDIOS/NEW YORK/149
18½ in. (47 cm) high
16½ in. (41.9 cm) diameter of shade
For the shade:
Digby Anstalt, Hamburg, Germany
J. Alastair Duncan Ltd., New York, 2002
The Geyer Collection
Sotheby's New York, The Geyer Collection: Masterworks of Tiffany and Prewar Design, December 11, 2018, lot 32
Acquired from the above by the present owner
For the base:
Christie's New York, June 11, 1999, lot 116
The Geyer Collection
Sotheby's New York, The Geyer Collection: Masterworks of Tiffany and Prewar Design, December 11, 2018, lot 32
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Digby Anstalt, Hamburg, Germany
J. Alastair Duncan Ltd., New York, 2002
The Geyer Collection
Sotheby's New York, The Geyer Collection: Masterworks of Tiffany and Prewar Design, December 11, 2018, lot 32
Acquired from the above by the present owner
For the base:
Christie's New York, June 11, 1999, lot 116
The Geyer Collection
Sotheby's New York, The Geyer Collection: Masterworks of Tiffany and Prewar Design, December 11, 2018, lot 32
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Dr. Egon Neustadt, The Lamps of Tiffany, New York, 1970, p. 134 (for the shade)
Alastair Duncan, Tiffany at Auction, New York, 1981, p. 97 (for the shade)
William Feldstein, Jr. and Alastair Duncan, The Lamps of Tiffany Studios, New York, 1983, p. 55 (for the shade)
Alastair Duncan, Tiffany Lamps and Metalware, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2019, p. 26, no. 48 (for the shade and base pairing)
Alastair Duncan, Tiffany at Auction, New York, 1981, p. 97 (for the shade)
William Feldstein, Jr. and Alastair Duncan, The Lamps of Tiffany Studios, New York, 1983, p. 55 (for the shade)
Alastair Duncan, Tiffany Lamps and Metalware, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2019, p. 26, no. 48 (for the shade and base pairing)
One of Louis C. Tiffany’s favorite flowers was the rose and he displayed it prominently at his estates. At Laurelton Hall, the greenhouses were replete with “orderly benches of rich moist earth where thrive roses.” Even more impressive was his circular rose garden at “The Briars,” his previous Long Island mansion, described in 1906 as: “a crown of glory filled with roses of yesterday. Not the highly cultivated darlings of fashionable society…[but] the damask rose, the tea rose…the lovely white Cherokee rose, with its Oriental luxuriance and abandon, becoming once again a very weed—the wild brier and the beautiful dog rose.”
It is very possibly this last rose, also known as Rosa canina, that is depicted in this exceedingly rare and beautiful model. This less refined floral variety is a climbing vine, and the shade’s pentagonal leading replicates a trellis. Unlike other geometric backgrounds, however, the designer had the liberty to disrupt the pattern and brilliantly created a motif of leaves and flowers luxuriously growing over the lattice.
The glass utilized in the shade is exceptional. The yellow-centered roses, with artistically curled petals in various shades of red, some streaked with blue and violet, grow among green and yellow-green leafage. Equally striking is the background, composed entirely of “foliage” glass. Originally created for Tiffany’s leaded glass landscape windows, “foliage,” otherwise known as “confetti,” was created by rolling hot sheet glass over “frit,” small, paper-thin sections of shattered colored glass. In this instance, transparent glass was enhanced with frit in tones of red, pink and green that perfectly match the leaded glass of the leaves and flowers.
Finally, the mosaic base seamlessly compliments the shade. Its tapered spherical form is an ideal match to the sloping domed contour of the shade. Also, the variegated green tesserae mirror the green hues of the shade’s leafage and background passages. All things considered, this is perhaps the finest example of the “Rambling Rose” model ever to appear at auction.
—Paul Doros
It is very possibly this last rose, also known as Rosa canina, that is depicted in this exceedingly rare and beautiful model. This less refined floral variety is a climbing vine, and the shade’s pentagonal leading replicates a trellis. Unlike other geometric backgrounds, however, the designer had the liberty to disrupt the pattern and brilliantly created a motif of leaves and flowers luxuriously growing over the lattice.
The glass utilized in the shade is exceptional. The yellow-centered roses, with artistically curled petals in various shades of red, some streaked with blue and violet, grow among green and yellow-green leafage. Equally striking is the background, composed entirely of “foliage” glass. Originally created for Tiffany’s leaded glass landscape windows, “foliage,” otherwise known as “confetti,” was created by rolling hot sheet glass over “frit,” small, paper-thin sections of shattered colored glass. In this instance, transparent glass was enhanced with frit in tones of red, pink and green that perfectly match the leaded glass of the leaves and flowers.
Finally, the mosaic base seamlessly compliments the shade. Its tapered spherical form is an ideal match to the sloping domed contour of the shade. Also, the variegated green tesserae mirror the green hues of the shade’s leafage and background passages. All things considered, this is perhaps the finest example of the “Rambling Rose” model ever to appear at auction.
—Paul Doros