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Tiffany Studios New York "Greek Key" Floor Lamp
An alluring and visually rewarding example of Tiffany Studios New York's great "Greek Key" table lamp. Mottled glass in hues of kelly green softens the wonderful, stark geometry that dominates the shade's composition, while gentle striations of ochre break up the light blue of the Greek key patterning that decorates the bottom of the shade. A gentle undulation in the top of the shade prompts the dappled light in blue hues to dance upwards, while a downward turn in the bottom of the shades casts a resolute band of bright green light outward. The shade sits atop a bronze Piano base.
- Product Details
- Curator's Notes
Item #: L-21583
Artist: Tiffany Studios New York
Country: United States
Circa: 1900
Dimensions: 22.125" diameter, 71.5" height.
Materials: Leaded Glass, Bronze
Shade Signed: Tiffany Studios New York 1907
Base Signed: Tiffany Studios New York 386
Literature: Dr. E. Neustadt, Lamps of Tiffany, New York, 1970, p. 35, no. 34 (base model)
R. Koch, Louis C. Tiffany’s Glass, Bronzes, Lamps: A Complete Collector’s Guide, New York, 1971, pp. 112 (base model); 134, no. 216 (for a related base model); 192, no. 16 (shade model); 194, no. 34 (shade model)
A. Duncan, Tiffany at Auction, New York, 1981, p. 220, no. 635 (base model)
A. Duncan, Tiffany Lamps and Metalware, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2019, pp. 204, no. 795 (shade model); 232, no. 911 (base model)
P. Crist, Tiffany Lamps: A History, Mosaic Shades, Volume I, Santa Fe Springs, 2023, pp. 180, no. 6-112 (base model); 225, no. 7-117 (base model); 277, no. 9-42 (shade model)
Tiffany was a man preoccupied with Grecian decor. At only 22, Tiffany and the eminent Hudson River School painter Robert Swain Gifford made trips to the ruins of Pompeii. From his trip to Pompeii, two things would impress upon the young Tiffany. The first was the geometric complexity of Greco-Roman design. To the Greeks geometry was more than decoration, it was divinity itself The "Greek Key" pattern was modeled after the Minotaur's labyrinth, symbolizing cosmological infinity, and unity.
The second was the vibrant color of antiquity. Opposed to the prevailing belief that the ancient world was devoid of color, the frescoes and mosaics of Pompeii revealed the vibrancy of ancient life. Tiffany's "Greek Key" chandelier reflects the color of Pompeii in its polychromatic palette. The "Greek key" pattern was a rectilinear abstraction of ancient wave patterns. The pattern's original Greek name, meandros, referred to the shifting, twisting path of the Meander River of Phyrigia, in the Mediterranean region of present-day Turkey.
In the same year that this lamp was produced, Tiffany threw his famed Quest of Beauty pageant for his sixty-eighth birthday. The Greek pageant illustrated the journey of mankind from caveman to cultured artistic civilization. Tiffany spared no expense, spending $10,000 on lights, and hiring a cast of forty-two professional actors. Each tier of the stage was wrapped with "Greek key" patterns while the edge of the stage was wrapped with a wave pattern, in almost perfect mimesis of the lamp we see today.