L. C.Tiffany was born in 1848 and lived 
until 1933. His family today operates the 
well renown TIFFANY & CO of New York, 
known for it`s jewelry and exquisite luxury 
items.
 

During his youth his main interest was 
painting. He was a member of the National 
Academy at the age of 23- an 
accomplishment that has yet to have been
achieved again.
 

Tiffany began experimenting  with colored 
glass during the 70`s of the 19th century 
and soon thereafter completed
stained glass windows  for churches. Already
in this stage, he portrayed colored nature  
screens within  his  windows often  allowing
the glass to resemble plant forms.
 

With Thomas Edison`s discovery of the 
electric light bulb, the artisticly designed 
lampshade of glass was just a step away.

The construction of the lampshades 
was the same as of the stained glass 
windows. Glass cutting patterns were
made from a drawing ,  thus allowing 
many glass parts to be cut. It was out
of these pieces then that the lamp
shade was made. 

The conecting of these single glass 
pieces was made possible by framing
the edges of every piece with a thin 
copper foil, which was then soldered 
to the neighboring copper foiled pieces.

This technique, combined with the 
linking approach made shades extremely
stable, thus allowing us today to still see
many of the old originals in museums of
the United States of America.

Dr. Hans-Peter Grotepass