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The Tiffany lamp

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Is it a new lighting range from Tiffany & Co?

No, but there's a family connection.

So all silver and diamonds are they? Er ... no. More art deco. The lamps have wide and colourful shades of stained-glass; mosaic fragments of glass form abstract patterns held together by brass shades. Usually of the table-top variety, free-standing and ceiling shades have also been made.

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Oh right - very 1920s American. Correct, but production began in 1913.

Who? Louis Comfort Tiffany.

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Er, who? Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), one of America's most notable glass-makers. As well as the lamps that bear his name, his legacy includes innovative glassware and mosaics as well as stained-glass windows. New York jewellery firm Tiffany & Co is often thought to be responsible for Tiffany lamps. This is not true but there is a link: the lamp creator's father, Charles Lewis Tiffany, co-founded the luxury jewellery store and made Louis design director in 1902. It was largely an honorary title, however, because his private, wacky experimental glass workshop, Tiffany Studios, was his real pride and joy.

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