Tiffany

Coordinating a room from one range

Buying within a single range solves a problem that comes up often with stained glass: pieces from different makers rarely sit together well, because the glass palettes and the metal tones are mixed independently. Here the colourways repeat across fixture types, so a table lamp on a side table, a pair of wall lights beside a chimney breast and a pendant over the middle of the room can all carry the same glass. If you are lighting a room in layers rather than buying a single feature piece, that consistency is worth more than it sounds.

Colourways across the range

Most of the range is multicoloured, where several glass tones sit in one shade. Alongside those sit narrower colourways, including blue, beige, amber and black, which read as a single dominant tone with detail worked through it. The narrower ones are easier to place in a room that already has a colour scheme; the multicoloured shades work best where they are the thing you look at. Every shade is hand-cut glass set into a metal frame, so no two are identical in the small details of their pattern.

Single and multi-light fittings

The range splits fairly evenly between single-lamp fittings and two and three-lamp designs. Single-lamp pieces cover table lamps, wall lights, also sold as sconces, and smaller pendants, and they suit a corner, a bedside or a hallway where you want one pool of light. The two and three-lamp pendants and ceiling fittings, called flush mounts in the US, spread light across a wider area and carry more glass, so they read as the main feature in a room. Floor lamps, or standard lamps, sit between the two, giving a taller light beside seating without taking a table.

Wiring, class and fixing

Two practical points decide how straightforward an installation is. The first is electrical class: some fittings are Class 1 and need an earth, others are Class 2 and are double insulated. Both appear here, and the specification table on each product page states which. The second is weight. Leaded glass is dense, and a three-light pendant weighs considerably more than a plain glass fitting of the same size, so pendants and flush fittings want fixing into a joist or a proper ceiling fixing rather than into plasterboard on its own. Every fitting in the range is rated IP20, which means dry indoor use only.

Caring for stained glass

Stained glass needs less maintenance than people expect, but it does not tolerate the wrong cleaning. Dust with a dry or barely damp soft cloth. Solvents, abrasive creams and metal polishes all attack the leading between the glass pieces and strip the patina from the frame, and once that is gone it cannot be put back. Never soak a shade or run one through a dishwasher. Let a lamp cool before handling it, and check the lamp cap and wattage on the product page rather than fitting whatever is to hand, since an over-rated lamp runs hotter than the fitting is designed for.