Cherub Tiffany Lamp

Louis Comfort Tiffany was undoubtedly the most influential and accomplished American decorative artist in the decades that spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Beyond glass, he worked in mediums that ranged from furniture and enameling to ceramics and metalware, with his Tiffany Studios producing highly collectible table lamps, vases, serveware and other objects.

The name Tiffany prompts thoughts of two things: splendid gifts in robin’s-egg blue boxes and exquisite stained glass. Charles Lewis Tiffany founded the former, and his son, Louis, is responsible for exemplars of the latter. 

By the time Louis Comfort Tiffany was born, the stationery and “fancy goods” emporium his father had established 11 years before had grown to become the most fashionable jewelry and luxury items store in New York. Tiffany fils declined to join the family business and pursued a career as an artist. He studied painting with several teachers, notably the scenic painter Samuel Colman, while spending long periods touring Europe and North Africa. Though he painted his entire career, visits to continental churches sparked a passionate interest in stained glass. Tiffany began experimenting with the material and in 1875 opened a glass factory-cum-laboratory in Corona, Queens — the core of what eventually became Tiffany Studios, a multimedia decorative-arts manufactory.

Tiffany developed a method in which colors were blended together in the molten state. Recalling the Old English word fabrile, meaning “hand-wrought,” he named the blown glass Favrile, a term that signified handmade glass of unique quality. In his glass designs, Tiffany embraced the emerging Art Nouveau movement and its sinuous, naturalistic forms and motifs. The pieces won Tiffany international fame. (Siegfried Bing, the Paris entrepreneur whose design store, L’Art Nouveau, gave the stylistic movement its name, was the leading European importer of Tiffany pieces.) 

By 1902, along with glass, Tiffany was designing stained-glass lamps and chandeliers as well as enameled metal vases, boxes and bowls, and items such as desk sets and candlesticks. Today such pieces epitomize the rich aesthetics of their era.

Antique Tiffany Studios table lamps are the most recognizable and the most prized. They range in price from $60,000 to upward of $2 million for intricate shade designs like the Dragonfly. Tiffany glass vases and bowls are generally priced from $1,000 to $30,000 depending on size, color, condition and form. Simpler accessories such as metal trays and small picture frames can fetch from $800 to $3,000. Tiffany design of any type is an emblem of taste and craftsmanship. As you will see on 1stDibs, Louis Comfort Tiffany ensured that each piece he and his company produced, magnificent or modest, was a work of art.

Find Louis Comfort Tiffany vases, serveware and other items on 1stDibs.

There may be no greater design piece in a home than antique, new or vintage windows, each a portal through which light enters a space. Natural light is the ultimate accessory to any room, especially when it enhances your other items, bouncing off their surfaces.

From stained glass in churches to industrial and warehouse styles, windows have always presented a grand opportunity to transform a space. And they have changed over the years. Antique arts and crafts windows are layered with an array of complex colors that manipulate the light that flows through them. These windows provide an eclectic yet classic aesthetic with abstract patterns, mosaic tints and arched panels.

The craftsmanship of wooden panel windows has an air of the traditional style of the East. Rustic oak shutters and Persian carved panels present an intricate technique and artistry appreciated by sight and touch.

Industrial-style windows of the 1920s to the ’50s typically paired geometric patterns with metal frames. This window style emerged in home decor as a result of the residential repurposing of former manufacturing and warehouse districts.

By the 21st century, windows were less ornate in their designs, touting a more uniform panel layout. Still, you can find modernist windows that add a touch of artful vigor with eye-catching colors and designs you don’t see every day.

Browse 1stDibs for antique, new and vintage windows that will make a beautiful and unique addition to any home.