Peacock Table Lamp (c. 1902): Art, History and Details

Peacock Table Lamp (c. 1902) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Clara Wolcott Driscoll (American, 1861–1944); Tiffany Studios (United States, New York, 1902–32).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The peacock, with its brilliantly colored iridescent plumage, was a favorite motif of Louis Comfort Tiffany, appearing in almost every genre of his artistic production. The Peacock table lamp, created by Tiffany's chief lamp designer Clara Wolcott Driscoll, evokes the wide circular swath of a peacock's preening feathers and attracted critical acclaim to both Driscoll and Tiffany Studios. This particular version retains its original kerosene burning fluid apparatus as well as an electric bulb armature. Although incandescent lamp bulbs had become more widely available in the 1890s, most households, even those of the wealthy, were not yet wired for electricity. Tiffany originally designed his lamps with an oil-burning apparatus, consisting of a reservoir and a double wick and chimney, as well as an electric attachment. He cleverly predicted, though, that electric households would eventually become commonplace, so he soon moved to all-electric designs, greatly increasing the illumination and appeal of his lamps.

Object facts

• Title: Peacock Table Lamp
• Date: c. 1902
• Creator attribution: Clara Wolcott Driscoll (American, 1861–1944); Tiffany Studios (United States, New York, 1902–32)
• Culture: America, New York
• Type: Lamp
• Technique: Leaded glass, bronze
• Dimensions: Diameter: 48 cm (18 7/8 in.); Overall: 65 cm (25 9/16 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 2018.281

A detail from the museum

Originally designed to burn kerosene, this Peacock lamp still retains its original double wick and oil reservoir along with an adapter for electric light bulbs.

Collection credit

Bequest of Charles Maurer

Further reading listed by the museum

• Harrison, Stephen, Emmanuel Ducamp, and Jeannine J. Falino. Artistic Luxury: Fabergé Tiffany Lalique. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.
• Harrison, Stephen. “Acquisitions 2018: Decorative Art and Design.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 59, no. 2 (March/April 2019): 10-12.
• "King Louis". Antique Collecting 58, no. 7 (December/January 2023-24): 36-40.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.