Tiffany Studios New York "Turtleback Tile" Lantern

This four-sided hanging Moorish lantern features red turtleback glass tiles set within intricate coiled wire filigree—a technique derived from ancient Greco-Roman jewelry. Its bold pyramidal form enhances the design’s exotic character. Tiffany’s turtleback lanterns were among his earliest lighting innovations, appearing in photographs as early as the 1880s. Designed to hang from ceilings at staggered heights, these lanterns created a dynamic interplay of form and light. Their varied shapes and textures were intended to evoke the illuminated ceilings of a mosque, where centuries of accumulated oil lamps and polycandela formed a dazzling, mismatched constellation of lights.
Category: Chandeliers New Acquisitions TEFAF 2026 Tiffany Lamps Tiffany Studios New York
Product Details

Item #: YL-22197
Artist: Tiffany Studios New York
Country: United States
Circa: 1900
Dimensions: 42" height, 5.25" width, 5.25" depth.
Materials: Favrile Glass, Bronze
Literature: For an illustration of this rare model, see Alastair Duncan, Tiffany Lamps and Metalware: An Illustrated Reference to Over 2,000 Models, New Edition, pg. 326, fig. 1308. "Da Lee Anderson, Il Collezionista," in Casa Vogue, June 1985, no. 64, pgs. 172-5.

Item #: YL-22197
Artist: Tiffany Studios New York
Country: United States
Circa: 1900
Dimensions: 42" height, 5.25" width, 5.25" depth.
Materials: Favrile Glass, Bronze
Literature: For an illustration of this rare model, see Alastair Duncan, Tiffany Lamps and Metalware: An Illustrated Reference to Over 2,000 Models, New Edition, pg. 326, fig. 1308. "Da Lee Anderson, Il Collezionista," in Casa Vogue, June 1985, no. 64, pgs. 172-5.

Curator's Notes
This lantern was commissioned by Charlotte Doremus Pierson Garrett Bellairs (1872–1939) who was briefly married Horatio Garrett, one of three Garrett sons raised at Evergreen—a 48-room Gilded Age mansion built by a wealthy railroad and banking family. During their engagement, Horatio’s mother, Alice, began construction on “Evergreen Junior,” a nearby residence intended for the couple. But Horatio died of cancer in 1896 at age 23, and Charlotte never lived there. She remained at Evergreen through at least 1900, according to census records. The Garretts were early patrons of Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Evergreen remains filled with custom commissions dating back to the 1880s. Many, including this lantern, reflect Tiffany’s Moorish-inspired aesthetic. As Artistic Houses explained, this style was not a direct imitation, but an abstracted “feeling” for Moorish design.
This lantern was commissioned by Charlotte Doremus Pierson Garrett Bellairs (1872–1939) who was briefly married Horatio Garrett, one of three Garrett sons raised at Evergreen—a 48-room Gilded Age mansion built by a wealthy railroad and banking family. During their engagement, Horatio’s mother, Alice, began construction on “Evergreen Junior,” a nearby residence intended for the couple. But Horatio died of cancer in 1896 at age 23, and Charlotte never lived there. She remained at Evergreen through at least 1900, according to census records. The Garretts were early patrons of Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Evergreen remains filled with custom commissions dating back to the 1880s. Many, including this lantern, reflect Tiffany’s Moorish-inspired aesthetic. As Artistic Houses explained, this style was not a direct imitation, but an abstracted “feeling” for Moorish design.
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