Tiffany floor lamps have shades made from stained glass that’s soldered with copper foil. While the term Tiffany refer to any floor lamp with that type of shade, the name itself comes from Louis Comfort Tiffany, who began creating this type of lamp in 1895. His lamps were considered one of the most important American contributions to the Art Nouveau movement that took place in late 19th century Europe. A creation of his has now gone for over eight million dollars at auction.

Tiffany floor lamps are popular today, coming in many different base styles, even though originals were made with a brass base. Reproductions can use almost anything, and range from cheap to very expensive. They will all have a stained glass shade, but not necessarily from the exact materials used by the master–in fact, many reproductions are made with much cheaper and less grand materials than those originally made by Louis Tiffany.

True reproduction Tiffany floor lamps are made, first with a pattern drawn on heavy cardboard. Each part of the pattern is numbered and a color is chosen and written on the pattern. Then a piece of glass is laid on top and traced with the pattern, before its cut into the correct shapes and cleaned thoroughly. Copper foil is always the material that’s used in the best reproductions of Tiffany floor lamps rather than some other type of material. It’s put between the glass pieces and then the edges are soldered.

Tiffany floor lamps are rarely available today, which is part of the reason they draw such a high price when they are found. The numbers are low because they were craftsman pieces, not mass-produced items turned out on an assembly line, for instance. He and a few other artists created the patterns and the lamps, and everything was done www.totallylamps.com by hand. There are no records of how many lamps were created from each pattern, which makes the discovery of Tiffany floor lamps exciting because no one knows at first if the lamp is one-of-a-kind.