The explosion of color and new ideas in the 1930s - at the height of the Great Depression - was so striking, that one catalog page can't do the story justice. This collection of images from 1930s lighting catalogs shows the amazing range of color options on the market during the peak of the Art Deco and Streamline styles. (Rejuvenation Collection)

Color in lighting glass during the 1940s was overshadowed by war and the disruptions it brought. These fixtures from Lightolier in 1948 show painted shades that were about as colorful as things got. (Rejuvenation Collection)

The early 1950s didn't move the dial much color-wise - most colored glass was in the form of softly tinted bowl shades (especially for bedrooms - where they often replaced existing fixtures in older homes.) (Rejuvenation Collection)

Lightolier, always at the forefront of mid-century lighting trends, introduced a special glass in their Claremont series around 1953 that fused fine amber frit (ground glass) to clear or white-painted shades for a sophisticated "champagne" look. (Rejuvenation Collection)

By the end of the 1950s, Mid-Century Modern lighting led the market and colored glass shades in daring angular or organic shapes defined the look. Prescolite offered this series of imported Scandinavian pendants in 1962. (Rejuvenation Collection)

Of course, once a trend has peaked, things can start getting a little wonky or derivative. The 1960s saw the purity of Moderism undermined by the more eclectic and traditional tastes of the mass market, as can be seen in this selection of fixtures featuring colored glass from Moe Light in 1965. (Rejuvenation Collection)

Where should our survey of color in lighting glass end? Well, the 1970s make as good a place as any, when pizza parlors were ruining poor Tiffany's name with "stained glass" lights like these from Progress in 1974. Besides, plastic like the smoked acrylic dome in the center would soon replace glass for shades altogether. (Rejuvenation Collection)