Lamps of Tiffany by by Dr Egon Neustadt
Even today you can do an awful lot for £150. If you spent it on one book you would expect something quite special and this certainly is. It’s a beautiful coffee table volume for the enthusiast as well as the definitive guide for the expert.
The book opens with a biography, more concise than in any of the other books listed here but enough to set the scene for the rest of the book. The next chapter takes a look at Tiffany’s glass and glass-making which certainly does help in the appreciation of the lamps. Then follows the main body of this glorious book.
We embark on a detailed and well organised tour of the Neustadt collection which is more than a just a collection of Tiffany lamps. Tiffany produced hundreds of designs and hundreds of unique examples of each. Dr Neustadt has collected, illustrated and documented at least one example of possibly every design.
Here we find out the reason for that substantial price tag. Over two hundred quality colour plates, almost three hundred illustrations including black and white reproductions from Tiffany’s own catalogue, all in a beautifully bound volume on quality paper.
Recommending a book costing this much is a big responsibility and there are those that question its value for money. I have a copy and prize it. If you are looking for a selection of superb pictures of Tiffany's lamps - as well as his other works, perhaps "Masterworks..." (reviewed on this site too) would be a more appropriate choice but if you have a deeper interest in the lamps then no book I know of will be as comprehensive. Having reached the last few pictures, several examples of the magnificent 'Wisteria' design, you'll feel that you could take on an expert - and you'll reach for the book again and again, to impress friends or for your own enjoyment.
Book review by Shiela Dixon