Artwork Page for Nautilus Reading Lamp

Details / Information for Nautilus Reading Lamp

Nautilus Reading Lamp

c. 1899–1902
maker

Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company

(America, New York, 1892–1902)
Culture
America, early 20th Century
Medium
bronze, leaded glass
Measurements
Overall: 34.5 x 21.3 x 13.4 cm (13 9/16 x 8 3/8 x 5 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Virginia Hubbell 1997.298
Public Domain
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Location
209 Tiffany
Print
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Did You Know?

A lamp of this design was first featured in Siegfried Bing's 1899 display of Louis Comfort Tiffany's designs at the Grafton Galleries in London then in Tiffany's own stand at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle.

Description

Benjamin Hubbell, the architect of the Cleveland Museum of Art, acquired this vase from Louis Comfort Tiffany, with whom he collaborated on various projects. The shape of the nautilus shell provides the perfect space to conceal a light bulb, the newest form of technology at the time. As a result, this lamp was a critical success and sold both in this original form and with the later alteration of a bronze mermaid for the stand and an actual nautilus shell for the shade.
Reading lamp shaped like a nautilus shell, a spiral, green-blue striated shell widening to milky white at the opening at the end. Rows of square pieces of glass connected by dark brown bronze lines create the shell. Within the opening, the curve of a glowing light-bulb can barely be seen. The lamp has a circular base, with the shell sliding into the ""Y" shaped stem, fastened at the center of the spiral.

Nautilus Reading Lamp

c. 1899–1902

Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company

(America, New York, 1892–1902)
America, early 20th Century

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