Interesting metal three legged lamp - can you help?

that's neat....MCM...???

 

We have a floor lamp that has that same glass shade that sits under a second shade, so I would guess that yours had another shade too - one of those fiberglass drum-shaped ones that have plastic lacing at the edge- that went over that glass one.
like these:

or

or

or ...
well, I'm sure you get what I'm saying

 

Tripod MCM lamp?

Here's a screen cap of one from pinterest. The link from pinterest to ebay doesn't show any pictures. It's not exactly like yours but does show a similar shade.

I don't know why but it strikes me as an odd choice for a shade. Maybe it was a fiberglass shade as quirkygirl suggested.


.

 

I have some of those.

 

I think the form with the upward-facing shade is called a torchere.

 

Torchiere I think that is.

 

..... but this is not a torchiere. A torchiere uses a decorative glass shade. This is a diffuser shade, meant to have another shade placed on top. Unfortunately, not many seem to know this and sell such lamps as complete. I believe that this probably had a fiberglass shade as shown above. Note how the top spiders on the shades have little bends in them to keep the shade from falling off the diffuser. Most shade makers made shades dual purpose so that they could be used with either a harp or diffuser.

This is a true torchiere...

 

Some here>>>
https://picclick.com/Vintage-Milk-Glass-Baseball-Globe-Light-Shade-Diffuser-311309504547.html