Leaded Glass Window

Antique 1906 Gorham leaded glass table lamp dragonfly design with spectacular art nouveau bronze base of highest quality. 2018 was when this Gorham lamp was discovered. Never seen before as it was in private collection in same family since 1906 in Brooklyn NY. The story I was told is as follows – original owner contacted one of the leading researchers of antique lamps with info & question and offered to sell it. Solid bronze base is signed underneath the base – Reed and Barton B30. Lamp is 22″H by 16″ wide shade. Shade is shallow with original lamp sockets with short chain pulls ending in bronze acorn pulls making this lamp completely original when produced. Lamp is in excellent condition with minimal age or heat cracks in glass. Bronze base has 4 bronze round feet and is signed Reed & Barton B30 impressed into the bottom surface of base. Also there are lamps with bases signed Reed & Barton that the whole lamp is referred as made by Reed & Barton. Reed & Barton and Gorham were very successful Silver Companies prior to 1905 that competed with Tiffany & Co Silver Co. All 3 of these companies were highly successful in producing the best art nouveau silverware objects in America in 19th & 20th C. This is an important piece of history this lamp if you consider that these companies Gorham & Reed & Barton were both won medals at America’s World art exhibition fairs held in various US cities. Condition: Only hairline tight cracks I found on the entire shade are at the border glass tiles of what would be considered the insect’s single mandible. The 2nd pic shows one of the insects mandibles. It has a single crack. There are 8 insects with one mandible each. 5 of these 8 mandibles have 1 or 2 hairline cracks in them. These are the only cracks I could find. Every other piece of glass looks to not have a single crack in them. There is no other damage at all to the rest of shade & base. Remarkable condition for 114 years of existence. After personal research I have been discovering this lamp was an artistic endeavor rather than just an ordinary leaded glass table lamp. Gorham Mfg Co from Providence RI began making leaded glass lamps in 1905. Gorham lamps were direct in it’s company’s approach to make leaded glass lamps to compete with prestigious Tiffany Studio’s leaded glass lamps which glass of highest quality and bronzework was utilized. Tiffany Studio’s ambition from the beginning was to bring outdoor nature indoors by creating luminous glass designs with the highest artistry infusing everyday objects with beauty inspired by nature – The very definition of art nouveau. This lamp has great potential to increase in value for these following reasons 1. Lamp is one of a kind likely not another one made in this design by Gorham Mfg Co as I believe from research that this was a commissioned lamp 2. Lamp just discovered – I’m 2nd owner since lamp has never been seen by the public before 2018 when discovered in a family’s ownership since 1906 3. Lamp is still being researched by lamp researchers 4. Lamp was designed as a piece of artwork as a whole not just an ordinary leaded glass table lamp. Explanation of being an “artwork” will be in description below 5. Gorham lamps are highly sought after by collectors. The bronze base with my research could have been made by one of the great bronze sculpture artists of the time – Gorham Mfg Co began their bronze division to their company in 1905. Search shows that the top silversmith companies in 19th & early 20th C collaborated together Gorham Silver of Providence R. Reed & Barton in Massachusetts and Tiffany & Co NY silver were among the leading companies in their designs that produced very high quality work made for public and commissions. All these factors taken in consideration that this lamp is not just an ordinary antique lamp by Gorham which in itself Gorham lamps have a large following by collectors looking for special pieces. According to art nouveau artists of early 20th C symbolism was used to often to create which the artist was attempting to portray in the whole lamp together as a one piece artwork. This is why I believe this to be a commissioned work rather than just a table lamp. Commissions by well known companies were being done very often in early 20th C. For myself as an avid collector of artwork for many years of. Oil paintings, ceramics, glassware & sculpture. I realized this lamp is an artwork of art nouveau during the early 20th C – To understand this lamp as artwork I had to consider the following from a historical standpoint of what art nouveau was about not just a style – there was a meaning behind this art movement & you have to reach back into our history to discover this time period. This Gorham lamp has a story to it’s origin in the artist’s interpretation of making this table lamp as an expression of beauty in the true art nouveau fashion of it’s day. Read about the history of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s ambition in every piece of artwork he designed or watched over his employees to construct each lamp as a piece of artwork if you read about LC Tiffany was an artist in oil paintings before he was making glass to portray what he wanted the viewer to see his stained glass windows were made to be a piece of artwork – this Gorham lamp was made for this purpose as well. The bronze base on 4 feet represents water of a lake or pond to which the base stems up growing vertically & naturally in form of an upright tree with 2 nude young maidens intertwined with their arms to their sides (see pic 4) representing “nymphs” (Naiades in greek mythology – greek goddesses). Growing near or by a spring or stream who animate or maintain nature. Wood Nymphs are insects before their. (nature changing) that takes place into a beautiful flying insect butterfly, dragonfly or in this shade another insect common in early 20th C oil paintings are called damselfly. Damselfly are very similar to dragonfly except for this distinction – Damselfly has a wing on both sides of it’s slender elongated red abdomen that attach to the body, unlike dragonfly wings that are perpendicular to it’s body. Tiffany Studios design used dragonfly and these flying insects had pair of wings attached that spread horizontal to their body – this Gorham shade dragonfly is not consistent to this definition although damselflies were common insects found in many oil paintings during the early 20th C many artists were painting classical figures from mythology. If research can be found of this pair of nude young maidens to discover who the artist is this lamp could increase in value upwards to what I have it listed here. Early 20th C artists like LC Tiffany, William Morris in Britain all were against the machine age approaching so their desire was to show what true articles made by hand were much superior than same products made by machine. The shade and base will be carefully wrapped so it will not move in transit with plenty of insulation to make it’s way to your destination. The item “Antique Gorham Leaded Glass Lamp Bronze Base signed Reed & Barton Handel Tiffany” is in sale since Friday, July 10, 2020. This item is in the category “Antiques\Decorative Arts\Lamps”. The seller is “astor1000″ and is located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This item can be shipped to United States.

• Type: Lamps
• Featured Refinements: Bronze Lamp Lase
• Style: Art Nouveau
• Age: 1900-1940
• Primary Material: Bronze
• Maker: Gorham
• Original/Reproduction: Original
• Color: Multi-Color
• Country/Region of Origin: United States