Lighting and Lamp Shades - Paul Sahlin Tiffany

Victorian Traditional Blown Glass Arts & Crafts Hand Painted Sculptured Modern

Tiffany Lamp Shade Glassmaking

Tiffany Lamp Shades and Lighting Fixtures

Tiffany was completely enthralled with glass. As with every endeavor he undertook, his great love and his curiosity drove him to learn how to actually make stained glass himself. He was not satisfied with the glass available at the time. He wanted glass that could become window elements without having to be painted or treated in any superficial way. Today, Tiffany lamp shades mean quality.

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from Paul Sahlin Tiffany's

He worked in several glasshouses beginning in 1827, including a period in his own glasshouse working with Venetian glassblower Andrea Boldoni, during which he studied the Venetian style of glass working. After the furnaces burned down twice, he began working at the Heidt Glasshouse in Brooklyn, where he continued his experiments developing new glass types. While there, he applied for three patents in various glass types.

He continued his experiments, trying to develop a wider variety of colors and textures of glass than was available anywhere in the world. He discovered that the glass in common claret bottles and preserve jars was more beautiful in color and quality than any existing stained glass, so he set about trying to determine what made them so. He discovered that the glass contained oxides of iron and other impurities.

Metallic oxides were added in small amounts to the clear-glass formula to make colored glass, and great skill was required to judge the correct amount to obtain the exact tone wanted. Cobalt oxide made blue glass; iron oxide made green glass; manganese oxide produced violet; gold, copper, or selenium made red glass; coke, coal, and other carbon oxides produced amber glass; and black was produced from a combination of manganese, cobalt and iron.

One of the most important aims of Tiffany's experiments was to produce glass that was to make it possible for the entire design of a window to be carried out by means of the color in the glass itself. Tiffany always insisted that his stained-glass windows were a purer expression of stained glass than those of medieval glassmakers because he could dispense with pigment. All the color was in the glass, and it was the way the light could be varied by the use of opalescent glass and gradations of tone color that enabled him to create special effects. For the first time the glass itself was the sole means of denoting light and shade and perspective, by means of texture, changing color, and form. This was one of the greatest breakthroughs in the history of glass.

Tiffany said, "By the aid of studies in chemistry and through years of experiments, I have found means to avoid the use of paints, etching, or burning, or otherwise treating the surface of the glass so that now it is possible to produce figures in glass of which even the fleshtones are not superficially treated, built up of what I call 'genuine glass' because there are no tricks of the glassmaker needed to express flesh."

Lighting by Paul Sahlin Tiffany

Available for purchase
from Paul Sahlin Tiffany's

Victorian
Lamp Shades

Traditional
Lamp Shades

Tiffany lamps and lighting fixtures from Victorian to Modern styles for the home and office.

All of Paul Sahlin Tiffany 's Victorian stained glass lamps and blown glass lamp shades are real glass. Each stained glass shade is hand foiled and then soldered together by craftsmen; each Victorian glass shade is hand blown. Please remember that no two pieces of glass are exactly alike. They do have some blisters, seeds, lines, and variations in the surface. These are not defects, but are simply characteristic of hand crafted lighting fixtures and stained glass. Paul Sahlin Tiffany 's bases are zinc with either a hand polished antique brass, pewter or special two-tone antique brown finish. All lamps and lighting fixtures are U.L. approved. Many Victorian items are available in a variety of color combinations in addition to what is pictured. Please inquire.

Please note actual lampshade colors may vary according to your monitor settings and room light.

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Tiffany Lamps and Lighting

150 Cliff Ave Eureka Montana 59917

1-800-449-3145 info@tiffany-lamps-lighting.com

Victorian Traditional Blown Glass Arts & Crafts Hand Painted Sculptured Modern

Tiffany Lamps and Lighting Lights About Paul Sahlin Tiffany