This is the first book devoted to Tiffany lamps in more than 20 years. Experts in the field have made a selection of exceptional lamps^__many of which have rarely been seen or published^__and each one has been newly photographed with the latest photographic techniques to reveal in extraordinary detail the artistic quality and high craftsmanship of these masterpieces of decorative art.

Martin Eidelberg and Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen have contributed essays on the history of the lamps, enlarging our understanding of Louis Comfort Tiffany's achievement. They have drawn upon a host of previously unpublished photographs, paintings, and watercolors by Tiffany and other artists in his employ, as well as on working drawings and studio photographs, and images evoking the lost gardens and interiors of Tiffany's country estate, Laurelton Hall, that so inspired him. They outline the development and manufacture of the Tiffany lamp from freehand sketch to finished form, as well as the chief decorative themes in Tiffany's glass masterpieces and their relation to the work of other fin de siecle glassmakers.