AROUND HOME : Notes on Laundry Space, Dipped Candles, Tiffany Glass and Movado Watches : Tiffany Glass
LOUIS COMFORT Tiffany (1848-1933), painter, interior designer, architect and glassmaker, was one of the American masters of art nouveau. He drew his ideas from Egyptian, Roman, Chinese, Japanese and Persian art, combining them to produce the sumptuous glassware for which he is best remembered.
He began his career as a painter (his father was the founder of Tiffany & Co.), turning later to the creation of stained glass and producing with his associates an enormous amount of work that ranged from church windows to the glass curtains of the Mexico City Opera House. He developed new techniques of glass blowing and new methods for mixing colors. Few have ever been able to duplicate his effects: The stippling of a bird’s feather, for example, the roughness of bark and the gleam of water were all reproduced without being drawn upon the glass. Basically, he was painting with glass, and that was the technique he brought to Favrile, his most enduring creation.
Iridescent and richly colored, Favrile glass is the artist’s work most sought after by collectors today. The vases, pitchers, bowls and other objects made in this manner often look accidental or appear to be the result of natural growth, though each was carefully designed. In 1894, Tiffany registered the name as a trademark, and he was at his most creative from then to 1900, his products being as popular in Europe as they were in the United States. Not a single line was ever drawn or painted onto glass in the Tiffany Furnaces. A glowing ball of glass was taken from the furnace and inflated with a small amount of air before being loaded by the glass blower at specific points with tiny amounts of glass of different colors and textures. The ball was returned to the furnace and taken out again--a process that could be repeated as many as 20 times. In the art nouveau manner, favorite motifs were peacock feathers, flowers, tendrils and trailing leaves.
Products made by Tiffany in the Favrile mode were many and varied: They went by many different names (Luster Ware, Agate Ware, Cypriote Glass, Lava Glass, Cameo Glass, Millefiori Glass). No two pieces were the same. Tiffany Studios contributed an enormous range of household goods to fill the turn of the century’s insistent demand for beauty in the home: lamps, lamp shades, inkwells, desk sets, urns, vases, plates, glasses. Perhaps most famous and most imitated today are the lamps and lamp shades. Consider the famous Grapevine lamp with its extravagant arrangement of leaves and fruits tumbling over a plain stem simulating the texture of wood.
The enduring appeal of Tiffany lies in the abstract (and markedly contemporary) design of Favrile glass, with its expression in pure form and color. It will always be a reminder of the impeccable American craftsmanship.
Tiffany glass can be found at Rita Goodman’s Peacock Alley (by appointment) in Santa Monica, Toulouse Antique Gallery in West Hollywood, Brackett’s Antiques in San Gabriel, Connoisseur in San Diego, Roberta Gauthey in Laguna Beach, Antiques by Sherry in Orange, Selected Rare Antiques in Palos Verdes Peninsula, Matson’s Antiques in Walnut, and Snooty Fox and Nicholby Antiques Mall in Ventura.