This four-sided hanging Moorish lantern features red turtleback glass tiles set within intricate coiled wire filigree—a technique derived from ancient Greco-Roman jewelry. Its bold pyramidal form enhances the design’s exotic character. Tiffany’s turtleback lanterns were among his earliest lighting innovations, appearing in photographs as early as the 1880s. Designed to hang from ceilings at staggered heights, these lanterns created a dynamic interplay of form and light. Their varied shapes and textures were intended to evoke the illuminated ceilings of a mosque, where centuries of accumulated oil lamps and polycandela formed a dazzling, mismatched constellation of lights.
