Tiffany Lighting 101

Tiffany lights, with their beautiful and colorful designs, are famous for their classical elegance. But how was the Tiffany style born and how did it get to where it is today?

It all starts with Louis Comfort Tiffany, the son of the man who founded the famous Tiffany jewelry company. The younger Tiffany did not follow in his father's footsteps from the start, though. He began as a painter, but he took an interest in glassmaking in the 1870s and started working in glasshouses. His dad's money did come in handy when he started a firm along with three other American artists.

His firm started designing interiors in New York, turning heads in high society, and soon he was designing the Mark Twain House in Connecticut. He also landed possibly the biggest client in all of America: President Chester A. Arthur, who flatly refused to move into the White House in 1882 until it was redecorated because he found that the residence looked bland and dull. The president picked Tiffany to revamp the White House's rooms. He worked on the State Dining Room, the Entrance Hall, the East Room, the Red Room and the Blue Room. The work was extensive, involving refurnishing, repainting, putting in wallpaper, installing mantelpieces and adding Tiffany glass details.

But soon Tiffany decided to concentrate on art in glass and he broke away to create his own glassmaking firm: the Tiffany Glass Company, later Tiffany Studios. This move towards independence was inspired in part by the fact that Tiffany used cheap materials like jars and bottles to craft his glass since they had the mineral impurities he wanted. However, not too many fine glassmakers enjoyed this tactic, so he decided to strike out on his own.

In the late 1800s, Tiffany built a factory in Queens, trademarked the term Favrile to describe his products and then started making commercially-produced lamps in about 1895. (The very first leaded glass lamp was actually gas-powered!) When the Queens factory was at its peak, more than 300 artisans worked there, including single women who were integral in designing many of the floral patterns on Tiffany lamps.

Tiffany won many awards for his work at exhibitions in the early 1900s. He also became a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in France, which requires 25 years of professional activity, a flawless performance of one's trade and being supportive of others, in 1900. Over the course of his life, he married twice and had eight children: six girls and two boys. He died in 1933 at age 84.

Tiffany glass windows are on display at many different churches around America, including in Boston, Pittsburgh, New York, Chicago, Baltimore and New Orleans. To see some large collections of Tiffany works, go to the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art (Winter Park, Florida), the Queens Museum of Art (Queens, New York), the Montreal Museum of Fine Art (Montreal, Canada), the American Church in Paris (Paris, France) and the Haworth Art Gallery (Accrington, England)--or bring some artful Tiffany to your own home!

You can add a touch of Tiffany to any space: desks and tables, walls, outside your home, suspended from the ceiling--the possibilities are nearly endless. Table lamps are the most common Tiffany products, but we sell a wide variety of Tiffany fixtures from Quoizel.

"Quoizel is widely known as the 'Artisans in Lighting' and nothing personifies art more in our industry than the use of stained glass," says Scott Connell, Quoizel's director of retail business development. "Tiffany Studios produced beautiful works of art where each individual piece of stained glass was cut by hand, wrapped in copper foil and then soldered together to form the actual lampshade. The production of stained glass lamps is widely considered a true American art form and at Quoizel, we have always strived to carry on the tradition set forth by Tiffany Studios. We have done so by offering Tiffany style lighting designs to generations of customers. When people think of Tiffany style lighting, we want them to always think of Quoizel."

Many genuine Tiffany items are mistakenly thought to be fake due to a common misconception. Tiffany fixtures sound like plastic if you tap them with your finger, even though genuine Tiffany products are glass. That's because Tiffany invented a process of wrapping his pieces of stained glass in a piece of paper covered in copper foil. The foil and paper deaden the sound you would normally hear when tapping on glass. If you want to hear the proper glass tone, tap the lamp gently with a fork instead.

Other ways to spot real versus fake Tiffany products: real Tiffany features more brilliant and deeper color, especially when lit. Also, plastic is lighter than glass in terms of weight, regardless of how it sounds when you tap it.

Cleaning your Tiffany products is especially important for making sure they stay as beautiful as possible. If they have stained glass, art glass or jadestone, do not use ammonia. Use a lemon oil-based furniture polish on a soft cloth, then wipe gently. If the Tiffany fixture has beveled or transparent glass, use a glass cleaner like Windex on a soft cloth or a feather duster.

If you're ready to add Tiffany touches to your home, see more from Quoizel. If you have questions, our trained specialists are standing by: call 1-866-688-3562 for assistance. 

Emma Harger-Young - Lights Online