Lamp of the Week: 20" Lily Pad

Tiffany lamps usually feature plants and flowers rendered life sized, but the 20" Lily Pad shade is an exception to this design philosophy. Consisting of just two elements, floating lily pads on water, this shade uses forced perspective to make the pads at the top of the shade appear in to recede into the distance. This deceptively simple design uses intricate piecework to create the horizontal pads floating on diagonally swirling water.

For this shade, we used a variety of related green mottled and streaky glasses for the pads and a delicate hammered textured glass made by Schlitz Studios for the sparkling water. Subtle color shifts from top to bottom enhance the horizon line perspective of the design. The lower border row of rippled ovals adds texture and a subtle underline to the piece. Shown on the Grooved base (26" tall) shade was created in 2013 and is in a private local collection.