"Pony" Wisteria Lamp (c. 1902–10): Art, History and Details

"Pony" Wisteria Lamp (c. 1902–10) 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 dawn of the 20th century spurred fresh approaches to design. Louis Comfort Tiffany’s great contribution to this new art movement, termed the Art Nouveau, was not only the shimmering iridescence of his Favrile glass but also the naturalistic compositions of his lamps and windows, which brought him commercial and critical success in both Europe and America. The artistic blend of sculpture and function in the Wisteria lamp, in which the base rises up to form the branches of the vine, became a hallmark of Tiffany's Art Nouveau production. This lamp, designed by Clara Wolcott Driscoll, Tiffany's chief lamp designer, won a grand prize for Tiffany Studios at the 1902 international exposition in Turin, Italy.

Object facts

• Title: "Pony" Wisteria Lamp
• Date: c. 1902–10
• 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: Overall: 43.2 cm (17 in.); Diameter: 26.7 cm (10 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 2018.261

A detail from the museum

This small version of the Wisteria Lamp was called a "pony" by Tiffany and his artisans.

Collection credit

Bequest of Charles Maurer

Further reading listed by the museum

• Harrison, Stephen. "Tiffany in Bloom: A bouquet of splendid stained glass lamps.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 59, no. 6 (November/December 2019): 8-9
• “Exhibitions--Extended Dates: Tiffany in Bloom: Stained Glass Lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 60, no. 3 (Summer 2020): 4-5.
• "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.