Tiffany Lotus Leaf Lamp

Located in Fallingwater’s Master Bedroom, this lamp is one of a number of Tiffany objects collected by the Kaufmanns and displayed at Fallingwater. Its base is bronze, while its shade is comprised of panes of glass in varying shades of green and yellow set into a leaded leaf-vein motif.

Edgar Kaufmann, jr. (sic) always used this lamp to help explain the structural principles at play in the house. The angles of glass in lead echo the folded concrete planes used in Fallingwater itself that cause rigidity and function like a beam, as in the ceiling directly above the lamp. He also said the glass functioned like concrete, strong in compression, and the lead caning was similar to the steel, strong in tension. Together they work like reinforced concrete. Using the principle of folding, the broad shade was able to cantilever out more than it could otherwise, much like the stepped canopy that connects the Main House to the Guest House.

The Green Lotus Leaf is one of a family of Tiffany shades that take the lotus as their motif. Other variations are the Golden Lotus Leaf and the Lotus Bell. The shade was probably designed between 1902 and 1914 by a Tiffany Studios designer and approved by Louis Tiffany himself.

Tiffany’s Lotus design is often considered a transition between the decidedly more geometric designs and the predominately floral shades. The uniformity of the quadrangles of glass and the regularity of their pattern bear affinity with the geometric shades, while the branching “veins” and irregular outer edge of the shade indicate a move toward a more naturalistic representation characteristic of the flower shades.

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