This Louis C. Tiffany Furnaces Butterfly Table Lamp dates to the 1920s and combines an unusual enameled wire-mesh shade with an adjustable double-light base. The shade is marked “Louis Tiffany Furnaces Inc. 905,” while the base is marked “Louis C. Tiffany Furnaces Inc. Favrile 28.” The lamp measures approximately 25 inches high with an 18-inch-diameter shade. (bidsquare.com)

The delicate mesh shade is decorated with grapevines, fruit, foliage, and butterflies. Unlike Tiffany’s better-known leaded-glass lamps, the decoration is carried across fine metal mesh, creating an unusually light, translucent, almost textile-like surface.

A Remarkably Rare Tiffany Furnaces Butterfly Table Lamp

Based on the Museum’s research to date, we have not identified another publicly documented example matching this Butterfly Table Lamp’s exact combination of the No. 905 butterfly mesh shade and Favrile 28 paired-lion double-light base.

The Museum has located only one other publicly documented Tiffany Furnaces mesh lamp offered at auction with a comparable base featuring rearing lions. That example had a different mesh shade, and the auction house specifically noted that the plate marked “Louis C. Tiffany Furnaces, Inc. Favrile 28” did not appear to be original to that base. (jamesdjulia.com)

Other Tiffany Furnaces mesh lamps survive, including examples decorated with butterflies and grapevines, but they appear with different bases and configurations. A Christie’s example, for instance, features a mesh shade depicting butterflies with outstretched wings above grape-laden vines, but it is mounted on a different bronze base. (christies.com)

At present, the Museum’s research has not identified another publicly documented exact match for this Butterfly Table Lamp.

A Rarity Comparison: Tiffany’s Famous Dragonfly Lamps

Tiffany’s celebrated Dragonfly lamps are among the firm’s most recognizable designs, but surviving examples are comparatively well documented. Sotheby’s has described the Dragonfly as probably the most successful lamp model produced by the firm and noted that the 22-inch version may have been Tiffany’s most popular shade. (sothebys.com)

The Neustadt Collection alone holds eleven 22-inch Dragonfly shades, in addition to other Dragonfly models and sizes. (theneustadt.org)

By contrast, the Museum’s research has not identified another publicly documented exact match for this No. 905 Butterfly Table Lamp with its paired-lion Favrile 28 base. Only one other publicly documented Tiffany Furnaces mesh lamp with a comparable lion-form base has been located, and that example had a different shade.

The comparison helps place the lamp’s rarity in context: Tiffany’s Dragonfly lamps are famous and survive in numerous documented examples, while this particular Butterfly Table Lamp configuration appears far more elusive in the surviving record.

A Connection to the Museum’s Tiffany Botanical Plates

The Butterfly Table Lamp also creates an intriguing connection with another major Tiffany holding in the Museum.

Among the Museum’s more than 70 Tiffany Studios–stamped and annotated Encyclopédie de la Plante plates is a botanical image containing butterflies whose forms invite comparison with those appearing among the grapevines and foliage of the lamp’s mesh shade.

The Museum plans to present the botanical plate alongside the Butterfly Table Lamp so that the butterflies, plant forms, and decorative imagery can be examined together as part of continuing research into the visual material associated with Tiffany Studios and the natural motifs recurring throughout Tiffany design.

The Historic Object Behind the American Tapestry Emblem

The Butterfly Table Lamp also inspired a new chapter in its history.

At the center of its distinctive openwork base are two heraldic lions facing one another. This historic motif became the inspiration for the emblem of American Tapestry, a heritage-driven design house founded by the Museum’s founder.

The American Tapestry emblem was therefore not created independently of the collection. Its paired lions were reinterpreted directly from this Louis C. Tiffany Furnaces Butterfly Table Lamp, creating a visual thread between a surviving work of historic American decorative art and contemporary design.

The Butterfly Table Lamp brings together several areas of Museum research: Tiffany’s later decorative production, unusual enameled wire-mesh construction, butterfly and botanical imagery, Favrile-marked metalwork, and the continuing reinterpretation of historic objects.

Holdings of the Mayflower Descendants Museum.

Sources & Further Reading

Nadeau’s Auction Gallery / Bidsquare — Louis Comfort Tiffany Furnaces Butterfly Table Lamp, No. 905
The auction record for the Museum’s exact lamp documents the wire-mesh butterfly-or-moth shade marked “Louis Tiffany Furnaces Inc. 905,” the adjustable double-light base with lions, the “Louis C. Tiffany Furnaces Inc. Favrile 28” marking, and dimensions of approximately 25 inches high with an 18-inch shade.
View the Museum lamp’s auction record

James D. Julia — Tiffany Mesh Table Lamp with Rearing-Lion Base
The closest publicly documented lion-base comparable located in the Museum’s research to date. It has a bronze mesh shade and an adjustable two-arm base with rearing lions. Its base plate is marked “Louis C. Tiffany Furnaces, Inc. Favrile 28,” although the auction house noted that the plate did not appear to be original to the base.
View the related lion-base lamp

Christie’s — Tiffany Enameled Mesh Lamp with Butterflies and Grape-Laden Vines
An important comparison for the Museum’s shade. Christie’s describes an enameled mesh shade showing butterflies with outstretched wings above grape-laden vines. It carries Louis C. Tiffany Furnaces markings but is mounted on a different bronze base.
View the Christie’s butterfly-and-grapevine lamp

The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass — Dragonfly Library Lamp
The Neustadt documents multiple surviving Dragonfly lamp variants and holds eleven examples of the 22-inch Dragonfly shade, providing useful context for comparing the survival of Tiffany’s famous Dragonfly lamps with the Museum’s much less commonly documented Butterfly Table Lamp configuration.
Explore the Neustadt Dragonfly lamp

Sotheby’s — Important Dragonfly Table Lamp
Sotheby’s discusses the extraordinary popularity and success of Tiffany’s Dragonfly lamp design and the prominence of the 22-inch model.
Read about Tiffany’s Dragonfly lamps

Richard H. Driehaus Museum — Tiffany Lamps: Beyond the Shade
This exhibition examines the breadth of Tiffany lighting from the 1890s through the 1920s and the use of materials beyond conventional leaded glass, including bronze, enamel, ceramic, and glass.
Explore Tiffany Lamps: Beyond the Shade