Tiffany lamps light up the place in more than one way

Two lamps were placed close to each other in a brightly lit glass case. Which is Tiffany, visitors were asked.

They looked just alike, but one was obviously an imposter. I chose the lamp on the right. I’m no expert on these famous lamps, but a close look at the lampshade on the left revealed its imperfections. The most obvious were the scraggly and ill-defined black outlines around the flowers. They were too messy for the meticulous Tiffany Studio artisans.

The answer to the question was in heavy drawers beneath each lamp. I was correct.

I had seen enough beautiful Tiffany lamps at this “Gallery of Tiffany Lamps” at the New-York Historical Society Museum and Library to spot the right one. I was in the city this week with friends to see an exhibit of works by African American artist Augusta Savage at the museum. When I learned of the Tiffany lamps, I knew that I had to see them, too.

At auction, I’ve always come across so-called “Tiffany-like” lamps (a few of which were presented at the New York exhibit), but this was the first place I’d seen so many of the real ones. They were laid out and lighted on tables, hanging from the ceiling and standing alone in a gallery on two lower and upper floors separated by a glowing staircase. Each was a work of art in itself.

Much of that artwork – including the Tiffany dragonfly and wisteria – was created by Clara Wolcott Driscoll (or “probably” by her, according to the museum notes accompanying the exhibit) and a staff of women known as the Tiffany girls, who got little credit for their work. Driscoll is the most well-known of the group.

Tiffany Studios in New York flourished under the influence of its founder Louis Comfort Tiffany starting in the late 19^th century. He was a painter who eventually turned to interior design, according to the museum notes. He took his inspiration from nature and was a pioneer in the making of opalescent glass.

Tiffany hired Driscoll, who shared his vision of combining nature and glass, and eventually made her head of the Women’s Glass Cutting operation, where the Tiffany Girls worked anonymously on most of the designs that would make his mosaics, windows, decorative items – and his name – famous. Tiffany was said to have relied on the women to choose the glass for the shades and designs from nature.

Driscoll designed most of the lampshades and bases (some of which at the exhibit rivaled the lampshades in their beauty). Tiffany was said to have valued his female designers, who were paid the same salary as the male designers, but they faced challenges. He also took credit for most of their designs and the works they created.

“At my back is Miss (Fannie) Gober standing back and squinting to get the effect of a big red peony lamp shade she is selecting the glass for. Her cutter, Anna Ring … is cutting the pieces, with her usual deftness and skill,” Driscoll wrote to her family about the goings-on in the women’s department in 1905, according to the exhibit notes.

Here are some of the lamps in this ongoing exhibit, which features 100 of them from the museum’s collection. Most were produced around the turn of the 20th century.