Cleveland Museum of Art

Nautilus Reading Lamp

Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company

Date

c. 1899–1902

Medium

bronze, leaded glass

Culture

America, early 20th Century

Department

Decorative Art and Design

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Benjamin Hubbell, the architect of the Cleveland Museum of Art, acquired this vase from Louis Comfort Tiffany, with whom he collaborated on various projects. The shape of the nautilus shell provides the perfect space to conceal a light bulb, the newest form of technology at the time. As a result, this lamp was a critical success and sold both in this original form and with the later alteration of a bronze mermaid for the stand and an actual nautilus shell for the shade. A lamp of this design was first featured in Siegfried Bing's 1899 display of Louis Comfort Tiffany's designs at the Grafton Galleries in London then in Tiffany's own stand at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.