Poinsettia flowers
While these Poinsettia Tiffany lamps were produced in quantity, the globe under discussion is quite rare. The execution is also rather special since the flowers and leaves tend to be stylised rather than realistic.
Poinsettia Floor Lamp, a Tiffany Studios floor lamp in New-York Historical Society
The shade is 26″ wide, 11″ high, and 6″ across the aperture. There are three repeats of the design. Flowers cover most of the shade surface, and the leaves are mainly to be seen in the lower section. In this Poinsettia, the small blue and green formations which seem to be flower centers are actually the flowers themselves; the large petal-like red bracts surrounding them are really modified leaves.
The small blue and green formations which seem to be flower centers are actually the flowers themselves
The colors of the latter include pinkish red, streaked with white; deep orange, streaked with red; and deep red, streaked with purple. This wondrously hued striated glass has a knobby texture that imparts a mysterious glow. The formalised leaves are made from speckled glass in yellow-green, and in bluish-green, both with orange spots; the very straight stems are rendered in green-brown plain glass.
The background in the lower part of the Poinsettia glass shade is a glossy warm gold, speckled with orange and highly transparent
In the lower part of the globe, the background is a glossy warm gold, speckled with orange and highly transparent. When illuminated, the sun actually appears to be shining through. In addition to large orange specks, the glass is full of semi-opaque pinhead dots. Toward the upper part of the shade the background lightens, and the large orange speckles are completely replaced by the minute dots. On their inner surfaces, these extraordinary segments of glass have an undulating texture that lends a strong refractive quality to the light, similar to, yet more diffused than rippled glass.
Poinsettia Floor Lamp Shade, a Tiffany Studios lamp shade in New-York Historical Society
While there are no horizontal geometric rows in this shade, either at the lower border or at the aperture, echoes of them remain; at both these locations we find a horizontal leaded line running around the entire periphery. These lines are interrupted by plant formations, but their existence is never in doubt. Near the lower border, two more leaded lines appear at intervals of about an inch above the first, but these are discontinuous. With less impairment of the natural flow of a flower design, these leaded lines probably serve the same structural function as rigid geometric rows.