Ball and Tulip Glass Shades

Now we leave the class of glass shades with a large lower opening and turn to glass shades whose lower opening is much smaller, i.e. has a small fitter width. This feature is common to all ball and tulip shades. The fitter width of these shades is a maximum of 100 mm if they have been produced for kerosene/paraffin lamps (shades for gas lamps sometimes have a larger fitter up to 125 mm).

Although ball and tulip shades differ quite a bit in their appearance, they nevertheless belong to a common class because, regardless of their shape, they have very much in common as far as their fitter width, their artisanal decoration and their lighting effect are concerned. With these criteria, they differ quite fundamentally from the Vesta and Rochester shades.

Ball Shades

Ball shades usually have - as the name suggests - a spherical shape. Their shape can be strictly spherical or very slightly flattened, but the general appearance is that of a true sphere. This shape has its origins in the old Carcel and Moderator lamps, which very often had a ball shade that was frosted or decorated with multi-level etching. The lower and upper openings of these shades were often protected with a thin brass ring to prevent damage to the glass when removing or replacing them. Their most important distinguishing feature is the lack of a fitter. These ball shades can also be used with the kerosene/paraffin lamps if the lower diameter allows them to pass over the gallery of the burner, as they have fairly small openings which were sufficient for the Carcel and Moderator lamps. Consequently, for the kerosene/paraffin lamps, they can only be combined with Kosmos burners (up to max. 14''' Kosmos).

The ball shades for kerosene/paraffin lamps have a fitter at the bottom to insert the shade securely into the shade holder. As mentioned above, this fitter can be up to 100 mm in diameter. They are almost always flat cut at the top. There are also French globes of more recent manufacture, whose upper rim is crimped. Another shape that deviates from the strictly spherical shape in some English shades is the so-called "beehive" shape. These shades are somewhat compressed at the sides and slightly elongated at the top. There are also ball shades whose upper third is cut off (so-called "half-open" ball shades). They are actually intended for gas lamps, but can just as well be used with kerosene/paraffin lamps. Another, more playful variety are the ball shades of Baccarat, which have an obviously spherical shape combined with a crown-like top with a fluted rim. There are also ball shades that have a vertical or diagonal wide division of bulbous segments. This type of design, which is characteristically called "melon shape", is less common among ball shades, but somewhat more common among tulip shades.

The colour design and decorative ornamentation of the ball shades is done with the techniques that I describe in the subchapter Glass at Infoboxes. The older versions are the shades of Moderator lamps, which are frosted throughout without decoration or very beautifully etched in several stages. These French shades are always made of colourless glass. British ball shades are often made of colourless, plain-etched glass. However, there are also shades that are coloured at the top. German and Austrian ball shades often have a frosted finish in their upper half and sparse decorations in the lower, transparent half. The reason for this partitioning is the effort to let as much light as possible through to the table surface at the bottom, but to spare the eyes of the people sitting around the table with subdued light at the top. There are also rare ball shades made of cut crystal glass, presumably for later electric lamps.

Various ball shades
Top row, from left: Moderator shade without fitter, frosted satin finish inside and engraved outside
Plain-etched ball shade with cranberry top rim and lipped fitter (Vianne)
Ball shade with the upper half frosted
Cut crystal glass ball shade with lipped fitter
Bottom row, from left: Melon-shaped ball shade for Moderator lamps, without fitter (St. Louis)
American ball shade of painted milk glass
British "beehive" shade with flat-etched or sandblasted motifs
Half-open, multi-staged etched shade for gas lamps with lipped fitter (St. Louis)

Along with tulips, ball shades are the preferred glass shades in Great Britain and France. Since British lamps almost exclusively use duplex burners and the oval-bulge duplex chimneys with a bulge diameter of about 90 mm, these glass globes are always large, with a fitter width of 100 mm. They are usually 17-19 cm high and up to 20 cm across. Smaller ball shades are rare and are more common in continental Europe.

From about 1890 onwards, the US-Americans produced larger glass balls made of white milk glass, which are usually painted with flowers. The painting can even cover almost the entire surface and be very colourful. These ball shades measure about 19-25 cm in diameter. So they are quite large compared to European shades and harmonise more with the large lamps of the US Americans (so-called "gone with the wind lamps", see chapter American Lamps). If you want to use them on European lamps, you will inevitably have to choose very large lamps for them to ensure proportionality of sizes. Or vice versa: If you have quite large European lamps, you can safely equip them with these large American ball shades instead of smaller European ones, which otherwise seem quite out of place on such large lamps (see L.163 in the catalogue section as an example).

Tulip Shades

Tulip shades take their name from the shape of an opened tulip. In this classic shape, the glass already spreads immediately above the fitter, forms a more or less pronounced bulbous central area, becomes increasingly wider towards the top, and finally forms a more protruding edge. In addition to this classic tulip shape, a great many forms have developed which sometimes bear no resemblance to a tulip at all, but always resemble a stylised flower, so that they continue to be called "tulip" in order to generally characterise these most diverse forms with a designation. I will show some examples of different tulip forms here.

Very often, the central area of a tulip shade is slightly concave, i.e. curved inwards. Another version has the shape of an urn, which becomes narrower at the top, i.e. forms a relatively narrow neck, and then quickly becomes wider again. I call this shape "tulip with crown". Another variation comes from the USA: the earlier tulip shades for gas lighting resemble a broader flower; they are quite wide with a squat height and have a lipped fitter.

There are tulip shades that are more like a closed tulip bud, this means that their shape tapers towards the top and closes with a small opening at the top, without a protruding edge. These tulips are very often characterised with wide, vertical-bellied segmentation, which is called "melon shape" in technical jargon. Tulip shades whose shape is even more different from tulip shape can be cylindrical, oval, spherical with crown, or with inward waves. The shape of tulip shades is so varied that it is impossible to depict all the characteristic shapes here.

Examples of tulip shades with modified shapes
Top row, from left: Classic tulip shade, multi-level etched (Great Britain)
Tulip shade with strongly protruding upper rim, embossed and etched in several steps
Tulip shade with bulbous middle part, partly frosted and engraved
Tulip shade in strict conical shape, coloured and etched in several steps
Bottom row, from left: Tulip shade in bud shape, multi-level etched and coloured
Tulip shade with inwardly curved upper rim, multi-level etched
British tulip shade for gas lamps, embossed, multi-level etched and coloured
Tulip shade with unconventional shape and flat upper rim, 2-stage but flat-etched

Further examples of tulip shades with modified shapes
Top row, from left: Tulip shade with crown, embossed and etched in several stages (St. Louis)
Tulip shade with coloured crown, embossed, frosted and painted
Tulip shade with crown, coloured glass, embossed and multi-level etched
Tulip shade in cylindrical form, embossed, frosted and painted (new production from original design of S. Reich)
Bottom row, from left: Tulip shade in spherical shape, etched and painted (Pantin)
Tulip shade in conical melon shape with cut upper rim, plain-etched
Tulip shade in bulged melon shape (= “roller shape” in German) with cut upper rim, plain-etched
Tulip shade for Sinumbra lamps, partly frosted and engraved

A very common feature of tulip shades is their wavy upper edge. Wave patterns often vary; 6- or 8-fold wavy tulip shades are very common. Waves are often ruffled at their edges with much smaller waves. Melon- or roller-shaped tulips are often cut in a wavy or angular shape on their upper rim.

Tulips are the preferred glass shades for French lamps, as they harmonise most with their playfulness. In fact, French tulip shades are very often painted with polychrome enamel colours, or decorated with golden lines (there is a real parallel here with French glass fonts). The motifs here are also mostly flowers and plants, but garlands and fragrant ribbons also decorate these tulips.

The Paris Shade

The so-called "Paris shade" looks like a normal Vesta shade, but it is not wide open in the lower part like the latter, but is closed with a transparent, colourless glass except for a central opening, which has a normal fitter, with which the shade can be inserted into a usual globe holder of usually 85-100 mm diameter. This shade has the dimensions of a medium-sized Vesta shade, but does not need a correspondingly large shade holder, but a globe holder. In the area visible from above, it is made of opaque-white milk glass, sometimes even painted, whereas the bottom part, which is usually not visible, is made of colourless-transparent glass in order to let the light pass through unfiltered to the bottom.

Examples of Paris shades (fitter width in mm)
(Bottom row: Shots from below)
Left: Milk glass with flat rolled top rim (82 mm)
Middle: Painted milk glass with flat top rim (92 mm)
Right: Milk glass with waved top rim (102 mm)

The Ornamentation of Tulip Shades and Ball Shades

These two types of shades are the dominant shades in high-end salon lamps, both in Europe including Great Britain, and in the USA. Consequently, all kinds of techniques were used to decorate imposing, beautiful shades that were perfectly suited to the stately ambitions of these lamps. Glass is a material that can be completely colourless or monochrome throughout, partially bicoloured with flashed coloured glass, or even polychrome with extra pieces of glass melted in a different colour. Moreover, glass can be shaped into almost any form by techniques such as hand-blowing, mould-blowing, pressing into shape, etc. You can paint glass shades afterwards, engrave and cut them, and also etch them with special chemicals. Therefore, there are virtually no limits when it comes to decorating these shades. Most of the finishing and decorating techniques used for glass shades for kerosene/paraffin lamps have been described in detail in the subchapter Glass in the Infoboxes, so I don't need to repeat them here.

There are tulip shades for which other, much less frequently used methods were used for decoration. These include tulip shades with fused-in coloured glass inlays or with later applied glass decorations, coloured stained or overlaid shades with cut-out decorations, tulips with cleverly inlaid air chambers, etc. There are no limits to the imagination here.

Examples of rare ornamentation techniques on tulip shades
Top row, from left: Tulip shade made of uranium glass with melted-in decorative glasses
Tulip shade with fused coloured glass and iridescent surface (Pallme-König, Bohemia)
Tulip shade with applied floral decorations made of small white glass beads
Small French tulip shade with applied light green glass threads
Bottom row, from left: British tulip shade with diagonal lines of opaque white glass
French tulip shade with red stained and structure-etched surface (probably Baccarat)
French tulip shade with air chambers between two layers of glass
Small French tulip shade with iridescent surface

There are examples of how the different decoration techniques were very skilfully combined to create beautiful glass shades. Two French crystal glass manufactories in Lorraine in particular, St. Louis and Baccarat, produced sophisticated tulip shades and ball shades using complicated, multi-stage etching. The shades from these manufactories are sought-after rarities today. Cristalleries of Pantin and Legras (both near Paris) are other renowned French manufactories that combined etching techniques with painting. Cristallerie de Clichy near Paris became famous for its peculiarly marbled, sometimes multi-coloured glass. S.V.E. (Société des Verreries pour l'Éclairage) in Paris and Verrerie de Vianne in Vianne (in the southwest of France) produced painted or etched glass shades in the first half of the 20th century, which were widely used.

The tulip shades and ball shades for the luxurious, English column lamps are not painted, but etched with beautiful, mostly floral motifs. Interestingly, the now immensely expensive British tulip shades from the beginning of the 20th century almost always feature the simplest etching technique; they are plain-etched, whereas the earlier 19th-century examples have a wonderful, multi-level etching. A special feature of the British tulip shades is their often coloured upper rim, whereas the ball shades are very often made of colourless glass. The intense colour in the approximate upper third of the tulip shade gradually weakens towards the bottom. The lower part of the tulip shade is either colourless or only very lightly coloured compared to the upper rim. The most preferred colour is a pinkish-red, which can vary in hue from dark reddish-pink to purplish-red. The English generally refer to this colour (also in a wide variety of shades) as "cranberry", as the colour of this type of berry is similar to that described above. Other, less common colours are green, yellow, or even blue (very rare). Many of these high-priced exhibits were offerings from the London company Veritas (presumably made by other glass manufacturers for Veritas). Another manufacturer of glassware in Britain, whose products are now barely affordable, was Nailsea in the south-west of England. Some tulip shades from this company and from the French Clichy are so similar that they cannot be distinguished.

The Austrian Empire had very famous art glass manufactories in Bohemia (then part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire) such as Lötz, Pallme-König, Kralik, Harrach, etc., but they produced beautiful shades only later, mainly for electric lamps, and in this respect they are a parallel to famous French Art Nouveau manufactories Gallé and Daum. Before that, towards the end of the 19th century, the manufactories Salomon Reich and Schreiber & Neffen (both companies in Vienna, with manufacturing sites in Bohemia) were the best-known suppliers of glass tulips and ball shades for the lamp industry in the Austrian Empire.

Of course, the high-quality salon lamps from Germany were also fitted with tulips and ball shades. These were probably partly sourced from abroad (Bohemia, France, Denmark). However, only a few German glass manufacturers are known by name to have produced shades for kerosene/paraffin lamps. At least it seems that the tulip shades in melon and roller shapes tended to come from German manufactories. Glashütte Gelsdorf in Weißwasser (Upper Lusatia) has several roller tulips in its range. Some German lamp manufacturers such as Löwenbach (Hannover), Gustav Heer (Neheim), Kretzschmar & Bösenberg (Dresden), Schubert & Sorge (Leipzig), Klöpfel (Erfurt) also have many, very elaborately designed spherical and tulip shades in their catalogues, including several roller tulips, although it is not clear whether these lamp manufacturers produced these glass shades themselves or sourced them from glass manufactories. After 1900, the Vesta shades form the main focus of the glass shades in the German catalogues.

The fitter width of the tulips can vary between 50 and 100 mm. The smaller tulips tend to be from France, whereas the English tulips very often have the 100 mm fitter width adapted for duplex burners. The American wide tulip shades for gas lighting are also 100 mm in their fitter width. An exception are old English tulip shades which do not have a fitter at the bottom and whose lower opening has a diameter of approx.110-125 mm. To my knowledge, these tulip shades are designed for gas lighting. Because of their larger opening at the bottom, they are more difficult to use in kerosene/paraffin lamps, because shade holders for tulips with diameters larger than 100 mm are not readily available. Only special American shade holders with a 5 inch (approx. 125 mm) diameter can help here. They can be obtained from American online suppliers.

The Inside Diameter of the Fitter

When we speak of fitter width, we mean the outer diameter of the fitter. One does not even mention the inner diameter; and this can become treacherous in certain cases! Matador, Duplex and Vienna chimneys all have a more or less pronounced bulge. The inner diameter of a ball or tulip shade would necessarily have to be slightly larger than the bulge diameter of the chimney used, if the burner does not have a lifting mechanism. The reason for this is obvious: if you want to light a lamp, you first have to remove the shade, its lower opening (i.e. the inner diameter of its fitter) must consequently be wider than the chimney bulge, otherwise you would have to remove the chimney first and only then the shade. This would not be a big problem as long as the burner is not lit. But after lighting, you always have to put the chimney on first, and then the shade, because when the burner is burning and the shade is already on, it is very difficult to place the chimney quickly and safely into the gallery. Quickly, because the glass chimney quickly becomes very hot at the top and burns your fingers; and safely, because the unerring placement of the chimney into the narrow gallery is only possible if you look into the burner from above through the upper opening of the shades in order to manoeuvre the chimney exactly into the gallery, but now hot air comes up into your face from this upper opening! In the case of burners with a lifting platform, the above commandment does not apply, because with such burners lighting takes place without lifting the shade and chimney off the burner.

Conclusion: If you want to buy a ball shade or a tulip shade for a lamp that has a chimney with a pronounced bulge and a burner without raiser, it is essential to know whether the inner diameter of your targeted shade is larger than the bulge diameter of the chimney! Especially with ball shades and tulips with a lipped fitter, the difference between the outer and inner diameters can be very large. Certain glass shades from the French manufacturer Vianne have only 85 mm inner diameter at the bottom with a fitter width of approx. 100 mm; consequently, they are almost always unusable for 20'' Matador and oval-bulge duplex chimneys.

This problem can of course also arise with the other chimneys that have a wide bulge (e.g. 15’’’ Matador chimney, slim-bulge Matador chimney, Vienna chimney) if you are looking for a matching ball or tulip shade. With the shoulder, Kosmos and bottle-shaped chimneys, it can only become problematic if the inner diameter of the shade is so narrow that it goes over the chimney without any problems, but then gets caught on the slightly outwardly bent tips of the gallery prongs of the burner. This is almost always the case with the old Moderator shades, whose lower opening is just 55 mm. Only with a few 14’’’ Kosmos burners you can use such shades without straightening the tips of the gallery teeth properly.

Problem of the small inner diameter of tulip shades and ball shades
From left: Ball shade by Vianne: fitter width 99 mm, inner diameter 85 mm
Problem case: Chimney bulge (87 mm) is larger than the inner diameter of the shade
Without problem: Inner diameter of the shade (94 mm) is larger than the chimney bulge

Shades for Other Types of Lamps

Last but not least, there are also glass shades that were originally produced for inverse incandescent lamps or for electric lamps. They can be easily distinguished from kerosene/paraffin lamp shades because, firstly, their fitter is always lipped outwards to hold the shade in place at this area with small screws in the socket of the lamp in question, as the shades in the above-mentioned lamps are fitted facing downwards; and secondly, their colouring is "reversed": the stronger, darker colouring is not at the upper edge but in the lower collar area. These mostly tulip-shaped glass shades for electric lamps can also be used on kerosene/paraffin lamps, however, only if their etched or otherwise applied ornamentation does not take on an absurd appearance when, instead of pointing downwards as they were used on electric lamps, for example, they are now applied pointing upwards on a kerosene/paraffin lamp. This means, for example, that an ornamental design consisting of a vase with flowers can now suddenly be placed upside down (i.e. flowers downwards!), which certainly does not look elegant. Therefore, be careful with such tulip shades: you have to pay attention to the ornamentation being "harmless" in every direction!

Tulip shades for electric lamps; innocuous with their decoration
(Decorative motifs also shown inverted in each case)

As always, there are exceptions to the rule: Vianne's tulip shades and ball shades always have lipped fitters, as they were probably intended for both kerosene/paraffin and electric lamps. In my collection, I have some French tulip shades that are more boldly coloured at the bottom, although they were clearly produced for kerosene/paraffin lamps.

Lighting Effect

No matter how richly ornamented the ball and tulip shades for French and British lamps are and how imposing they look, the cosiest light is spread by the white or light-coloured Vesta shades! This opinion is also totally approved by all our guests. When we light a few kerosene/paraffin lamps outside on warm summer evenings, it is without exception lamps with Vesta shades that delight us and our guests with their light.

The reason is probably to be found in the shape and the type of glass of the Vesta shades. Vesta shades, with their shape that widens towards the bottom, resemble our present-day shade lamps in living rooms, to whose lighting effect we have become accustomed. The light from the burner flame illuminates the milk glass of the Vesta shade evenly from the inside, so that the shade itself becomes the actual light source. The entire shade emits a pleasant, slightly subdued light without tiring the eyes. Nevertheless, a bright light falls on the surrounding table surface because the Vesta shade reflects the flame brightness downwards very well. For these reasons, lamps with Vesta shades are the best table lamps for reading, writing or doing small crafts by their light.

The lamps with tulip shades and ball shades tend to radiate their light upwards and to the sides, because they lack the opaque white milk glass layer directed downwards. Thus, these lamps are rather intended to illuminate larger parts of the room without focussing on the table surface. In particular, column lamps with such shades are well suited to illuminate a larger table in general if several of them are placed on the table. This is why these lamps are called "banquet lamps" in English-speaking countries. The unpleasant thing about these shades, however, is that the flame is now relatively easy to see, because the light comes through the frosted, coloured or painted glass quite unhindered. The diffuse, pleasant light of the Vesta shades is missing in almost all tulip and ball shades, unless they are made of opaque milk glass.

In the next photo I have shown three comparably sized lamps, each with 14''' Kosmos burners and with the same flame height. Which light do you like best?

Comparison of the lighting effect of Vesta, tulip and ball shades