Tiffany Studios, Indian Basket

From the exhibition book "Louis Comfort Tiffany at the Metropolitam Museum of Art". Indian basket hanging shade, ca. 1899. Leaded Favrile glass, h. 14 7/8 in.(37.8cm).
A shade in the shape and design of an American Indian basket was a novel idea of Tiffany's, undoubtedly evolving from his interest in hand-workmanship and use of natural materials. Tiffany avidly collected Native American baskets, as did his close friend and associate Robert W. de Forest, for whom this unusual hanging lamp was made. It originally hung in a great walnut-paneled hall lined with such baskets in de Forest's Long Island home. Only one other version of the shade is known.