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TIFFANY & CO., NEW YORK
A distinction must be made between America's famous jewellery and silverware firm of
Tiffany & Co., New York, founded by Louis's father, Charles L. Tiffany, and the glass
and decorating companies of the son. Louis C. Tiffany's education in decorative design
began in his father's store, located on Union Square and Fifteenth Street, which sold a
wide selection of luxury goods, ranging from Sèvres porcelain to Venetian glass.
One columnist in 1875 described the store as a “comprehensive museum” in which, the
young Tiffany could admire the brilliance of precious stones in the jewellery, as well as
the glass that Tiffany & Co. sold from England (Webb & Sons), France (Émile Gallé) or
Italy (Salviati), glass items that resemble the works displayed here. Louis grew up under
the guiding eye of Tiffany & Co.'s leading silversmith and head of design, Edward C.
Moore, who won prizes in international exhibitions for his Japanese- and Moorishinspired
silver. Louis C. Tiffany eventually built up his own company, and even though
he never worked with his father, who died in 1902, the reputation of the Tiffany name
and Charles' financial support was critical to Tiffany's career.
TIFFANY: ARTIST AND DECORATOR
"I have been thinking a great deal about decorative work,
and I am going into it as a profession. I believe there is more
in it than in painting pictures."
- Louis C. Tiffany, 1879.
Louis C. Tiffany first set out to become a painter, training in New York and Paris, from
1868–69, where he was influenced by the French Orientalist painters. A trip to North
Africa in 1870 confirmed his interest in the rich colour and ornament of such countries as
Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Tiffany exhibited his paintings and watercolours in
American as well as international exhibitions, where he gained acclaim for his Orientalist
subjects and sense of colour. The decoration of his residence and studio at the Bella
Apartments, at 48 Twenty-sixth Street, New York, showcased his talents not only as an
artist but also as an interior designer, setting his career off in a new direction.
Tiffany established his own decorating company and received commissions from some of
America's most prominent clients, including sugar magnate Henry O. Havemeyer, the
writer Mark Twain, and even the American President Chester A. Arthur (for the White
House in 1882). His company offered everything, from wall coverings to furniture, and
Tiffany began to integrate glass in many forms in these interiors, including leaded-glass
windows, lamps, glass mosaics, and fire screens of metal filigree, incorporating glass
"jewels."
TIFFANY IN PARIS
Siegfried Bing, a dealer in Japanese art in Paris, visited Tiffany's studios and residence in
New York in 1894. He was so impressed by Tiffany's work that he became the exclusive
distributor of Tiffany glass in Europe. In an attempt to bridge the gap between the fine
and the decorative arts, Bing commissioned stained-glass windows from Tiffany created
after the designs of eleven French artists: Albert Besnard, Pierre Bonnard, Maurice
Denis, Henri-Gabriel Ibels, P. A. Isaac, Paul Ranson, Kerr-Xavier Roussel, Paul Sérusier,
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Félix Valloton and Édouard Vuillard. These windows were
first exhibited in April 1895 at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts , Paris,
and in December of that same year at the inaugural exhibition of Bing's gallery L'Art
Nouveau, which would give its name to the style of a whole era. Only three of the
windows commissioned by Bing are known to still exist, and of these, the one designed
by Toulouse-Lautrec, exhibited here, is the only one housed in a museum. Bing was
largely responsible for promoting Tiffany 's work in Europe by selling the artist's glass to
the Musée des arts décoratifs, the Musée Galliera and the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris,
as well as to museums and private collectors in other European centres, namely
Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna and St. Petersburg.
CAPTIVATED BY GLASS
As a young traveller, Tiffany had revelled in the rich hues of Byzantine glass mosaics and
medieval stained-glass windows, which were coloured when the glass was molten. He
even admired the transmission of light through the imperfect glass of old claret bottles.
He was curious to experiment with a material that was not static and in which colour and
brilliance changed under natural or artificial light. After relying on commercial firms for
his glass, Tiffany finally opened his own furnace in 1892–93, under the direction of
English glass specialist, Arthur J. Nash. Nash was experienced in the technical and
chemical aspects of glass-making and developed Tiffany's “Favrile” glass (named after
the Latin word fabrilis), meaning handmade. The vases and bowls in this gallery
represent some of Tiffany's earliest blown-glass vessels.
Tiffany was enraptured by the spontaneous unforeseen effects and shapes that could be
achieved in glass through the deft skill of his craftsmen. In 1894 a reporter from the New
York Times wrote:
"Some of the pieces are the work of a single glassblower, others of two, others of three.
When several colors are blended, workmen have had to stand by ready, each with liquid
glass of the proper color, and seize the right instant to help the master workmen who
began the piece. In this way colors are intermingled absolutely and without dividing
lines, one merging into the other, as if a single glassblower had done the work in one
movement."
In Tiffany's Favrile glass, traditional glass techniques were combined with an original,
free approach that anticipated the new century.
THE TIFFANY WORKSHOPS
"Tiffany saw only one means of effecting this perfect union between the various branches of industry :
the establishment of a large factory, a vast central workshop that would consolidate under one roof an
army of craftsmen representing every relevant technique - all working to give shape to the carefully
planned concepts of a group of directing artists, themselves united by a common current of ideas."
- Siegfried Bing, 1894
This is how Tiffany's Parisian dealer, Siegfried Bing, described Tiffany Glass and
Decorating Company's workshops in 1894. At this time, Tiffany was directing a large
operation to handle not only his interior decoration commissions but also the production
of his glass vessels and stained-glass windows. The firm had workshops and a showroom
in a cluster of buildings at 333–335 Fourth Ave at Twenty-fifth Street in New York. The
opening of a glass factory with furnaces in Corona, Long Island, in 1892–93, marked a
turning point in Tiffany's glass production. Arthur J. Nash, hired from Stourbridge,
England, managed the factory, which manufactured both flat and blown glass. Nash was
key to Tiffany 's operations, and he was also responsible for developing Tiffany's
popular iridescent glass and the complex techniques of cased glass vessels.
Louis C. Tiffany was the director of all aspects of the company, offering the artistic
vision and the inspiration that fuelled ideas. The firm's promotional catalogues rarely
gave the names of the many artists and craftsmen who worked in the studios, with the
exception of Frederick Wilson or those who worked for Tiffany on contract. Wilson, who
had trained as a stained-glass artist in England, was critical to Tiffany's success in
windows. He began working for Tiffany in about 1893 and was head of design until he
left the firm in about 1920. Wilson had a good knowledge of Christian iconography, and
he was expert at drawing graceful figures in flowing garments, which could be
transformed so well into window compositions with the use of Tiffany's drapery glass.
Tiffany artists included Edward Peck Sperry and Thomas Calvert, who along with
Wilson designed the Montreal windows, as well as women such as Agnes Northrop who
specialize in floral and landscape designs.
The production of lamps, a major concern after 1898, was for many years the domain of
the Women's Glass Cutting Department in the Manhattan studios, under the management
of Clara Driscoll. For about sixteen years, Driscoll oversaw a team of up to thirty-five
young women. Initially they selected and cut glass for windows and mosaics, but after
1903 they worked primarily on leaded-glass lampshades and small decorative objects.
Recently discovered correspondence reveals that Clara Driscoll herself was responsible
for the design of some of Tiffany's iconic lamps such as the Wisteria and Cobweb lamps.
The bronze bases were produced at the Tiffany metal foundry adjoining the Corona
furnaces.
In 1905, the firm, now called Tiffany Studios, moved uptown to 347–355 Madison
Avenue at Forty-fifth Street until 1932, when the Studios filed for bankruptcy.
THE MAKING OF A LEADED-GLASS WINDOW
The steps taken at Tiffany's firm to make a leaded-glass window were not all that
different from those carried out for centuries. An initial, reduced-scale design was created
in watercolour. Once approved by the client and Tiffany, it would be worked into a fullscale
drawing, or cartoon. Heavy outlines indicated the leading between the panes of
glass. From this cartoon a duplicate was produced, which was then cut into pieces to
serve as a template for the exact shapes of the glass to be used. These pieces were affixed
with wax to a large plate of glass called an easel, which was propped against a window
that served as a light source. The lead lines were painted on the glass in black. Next, the
desired pieces were selected from a large inventory of glass, which required sensibility to
the aesthetics of glass. Once the right piece was found, a studio assistant cut the glass
according to the template. The resulting pieces replaced the elements of the cut cartoon
affixed to the easel. Artists painted the facial features, arms and legs in with enamel. The
glazier carried out the final step of adding the lead strips to hold the pieces together.
TYPES OF GLASS
Streaky glass
Streaky glass was made by using a ladle to pour different colours from two or more pots
on to the marver (the term used by glass-makers for the flat surface of iron they work on),
and then manipulating the molten mix with a long rod to create streaks. This multihued
glass was especially suited to reproducing painterly effects, such as cloud-filled skies.
Mottled or "spotted" glass
Mottled or "spotted" glass was a distinctly Tiffany invention. It resulted from a
crystallization created by the addition of fluorine, and the rolling process carried out on
the molten glass, which produced variations in the density and size of the spots.
Feather glass
Feather glass was developed specially for depicting the wings of angels in windows and
was also used for details in flowers and petals. Its texture was produced by hand rolling
the molten glass on the marver.
Streamer glass
Streamer glass was made by laying thin rods of glass on to the marver and then fusing
them to the surface of molten glass through the rolling process to create a sheet of glass.
With the gestural strokes of an abstract artist, this type of glass could suggest the
movement and organic lines in foliage.
Drapery glass
To make drapery glass, another Tiffany invention, the molten glass would be worked
with paddles into folds and creases. The resulting texture gave volume to the robes of
figures or the petals of a flower and increased the modulation of light.
Hammered glass
Produced by rolling the molten glass through textured rollers, has a soft hammered
pattern that diffuses the light passing through it. It was often superimposed over one or
more layers in windows to enhance the illusion of distance.
"Jewels" (or cabochons)
"Jewels" (or cabochons) were generally made by pressing molten glass into cast-iron
moulds. These "jewels" originated from chipped chunks of glass, their rough facets
giving off a sparkle of light, as found in the "abstract" Bella Apartments window.
"Turtlebacks"
"Turtleback" glass is the Tiffany firm's name given to its four-by six-inch irregularly cast
rectangles of pressed glass, used primarily in lamps.
Ripple glass
Ripple glass was formed on a marver that moved slowly on rollers, producing a ripple
effect on the surface that remained once the glass cooled. This provided the perfect
texture for rendering water and to suggest relief.
Fractured or "confetti" glass
Fractured glass was made by breaking vessels blown thin, spreading the shards on a
marver and embedding them into the molten glass. These multicoloured, irregularly
shaped fragments produced visually complex effects, which were perfect for representing
foliage.
STAINED-GLASS WINDOWS
"If there is any one art which has been developed here and has received the stamp of American genius,
it is that of making ornamental and figure windows in coloured glass."
- Louis C. Tiffany, 1893.
Tiffany developed the making of stained-glass windows into an enormous business and a
commercial bonanza that helped to support the rest of the firm's varied endeavours. His
workshops, with teams of designers and craftsmen, created hundreds of windows placed
in ecclesiastical buildings, residences and public institutions across the United States, and
sometimes further afield. The series of windows exhibited here were made for Montreal's
American Presbyterian Church, when the Tiffany firm was at the height of its production
in terms of quality and innovative techniques. Tiffany windows all featured opalescent
glass, which glowed with translucent colour unlike any stained-glass window in Europe.
They also differed from European windows in the spare use of painting on the glass and
in the variety of surface textures.
INSPIRED BY NATURE
"Here what he [Tiffany] wanted was the discreet calm of semi-opaque tones in which, embedded
within the glass itself, he simulated fine veins, filaments, and trails of color similar to the delicate
nuances in the skin of a fruit, the petal of a flower, the veins of an autumn leaf. From the artist's hands
emerged gourds, the sinuous elegance of curving stems, half-open calices that, without slavishly
copying nature, took on the unexpected aspect of freely unfolding forms."
- S. Bing, La Culture artistique en Amérique, 1896
Tiffany's inspiration came from many sources, but above all, he encouraged his artists to
focus on the natural forms—for example, the irregular striations in stones, the green and
blue iridescence in peacock feathers, and the diaphanous filaments of cobwebs or
dragonfly wings. Tiffany's love of nature was evident in the gardens at his country
residences, most notably Laurelton Hall, his estate on Long Island, built between 1903
and 1905. It is no surprise that among Tiffany's earliest glass vases are "flower-forms,"
which rise up from a swelling bulb to a tall stalk and a final opening of the blossom,
expressing the vitality of nature. The mauve wisteria and white magnolia became
trademarks of Tiffany windows and lamps. Tiffany floral subjects were often the designs
of talented women, for example, Clara Driscoll and Agnes Northrop, who worked behind
the scenes, under Tiffany's wing.
LAURELTON HALL AND THE END OF THE FIRM
When his father died in 1902, Tiffany inherited a controlling interest in Tiffany & Co.
and became director of its design department. His main preoccupation in the ensuing
years, however, was his country residence, Laurelton Hall on Long Island, which became
a showcase for his work and collections. In 1918, he established the Louis Comfort
Tiffany Foundation, to which he donated his Laurelton Hall estate and collection to serve
as a museum and school for young artists. Despite the bankruptcy of Tiffany Studios in
1932 and the death of Tiffany in 1933, the Foundation continued to operate the artists-inresidence
program for a few years, but in 1946 most contents of Laurelton Hall were put
up for auction. Tiffany Studios had been closed for over ten years, and decorative Tiffany
glass had lost its appeal for the general public. A fire that demolished Laurelton Hall in
1957 was the final death knell for the Tiffany empire.
In the late 1950s his work slowly began to be reassessed. In light of the artistic trends of
the time, his experimental approach looked innovative, and the demand for his works
reached astonishing proportions in the following decades. Recent exhibitions have kept
Louis C. Tiffany's name in the spotlight, as new devotees discover the uniqueness,
mystery, and radiant colour of Tiffany glass.
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