Making Light Bloom: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Lamps

The studio of Louis Tiffany was renowned for its stained-glass objects, and this revealing story clarifies the role of designer Clara Driscoll (1861–1944) in creating the exquisite table lamps Tiffany was known for—a role that was not understood until after her death. Leaving her beloved childhood home and garden behind, Driscoll sought work in New York City and found employment at Tiffany’s all-woman design studio, choosing among glass sheets “dappled and streaked, shaded and shimmering” to represent light and figures. Homesick, she began to design lamps based on natural forms, including her old garden’s “yellow butterflies and wild primroses,” then withstood her male colleagues’ protests to make still more intricate creations. The lamps earned high prices, and the art world believed Tiffany had designed them until Driscoll’s letters showed otherwise. Alongside delicate, design-oriented text by Nickel, Paschkis combines black outlines and luminous colors to make the pages glow like stained-glass itself. Background characters are largely pale-skinned. An author’s note concludes. Ages 7–10. (June)