Tiffany Studios, Indian Basket
From
the exhibition book "Louis Comfort Tiffany at the Metropolitam Museum
of Art". Indian
basket hanging shade, ca. 1899. Leaded Favrile glass, h. 14 7/8 in.(37.8cm).
A shade in the shape and design of an American Indian basket was a novel
idea of Tiffany's, undoubtedly evolving from his interest in hand-workmanship
and use of natural materials. Tiffany avidly collected Native American
baskets, as did his close friend and associate Robert W. de Forest, for
whom this unusual hanging lamp was made. It originally hung in a great
walnut-paneled hall lined with such baskets in de Forest's Long Island
home. Only one other version of the shade is known.
© 1999, Metropolitan Museum Of Art, New York, all rights reserved.