LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY (United States, 1848 - 1933).
Jack in the pulpit" vase. Art Nouveau, ca. 1910.
Favrile glass.
Signed "L.C. Tiffany- Favrile" on the back.
Measurements: 30,5 x 17 x 9,5 cm.
This vase was made in Favrile glass, a type of glass patented by Tiffany in 1892. As we can see, Favrile glass has a peculiar characteristic that is common to some glass from classical antiquity: it has an iridescent quality. The iridescence causes the surface to shine, but it also causes a degree of opacity. This iridescent effect of the glass was obtained by mixing different colours of glass together while it was hot.
Louis Comfort Tiffany was the American artist and industrial designer most associated with the Art Nouveau movement. He was a painter, interior decorator, designer of stained glass windows and lamps, glass mosaics, blown glass, ceramics, jewellery and metalwork. Louis attended Eagleswood Military Academy in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. His early artistic training was as a painter, studying with George Inness and Samuel Coleman in New York City and with Leon Bailly in Paris. In about 1875 he became interested in glassmaking and worked in various glassworks in Brooklyn. In 1879 he partnered with Samuel Colman and Lockwood de Forest to form Louis Comfort Tiffany and Associated American Artist. Tiffany's leadership and talent, along with his father's connections and financial resources, made the business a success. Tiffany's desire to concentrate on glass as an artistic element led to the dissolution of the company in 1885, when he chose to establish his own glass-making firm. The first Tiffany Glass Company was incorporated on 1 December 1885, and in 1900 it became known as Tiffany Studios. In his factory he used opaque glass in a variety of colours and textures to create a unique style of stained glass, which contrasted with the method of transparent painted or enamelled glass that had been the dominant methods of stained glass making for hundreds of years in Europe. The use of coloured glass for stained glass was motivated by the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement and its leader William Morris in England. Artist and glassmaker John La Farge was Tiffany's main competitor in this new American style of stained glass. Both had learned their craft in the same Brooking glassworks in the late 1870s. In 1893 Tiffany built a new factory, called Tiffany Glass Furnaces, located in Corona Queens, New York. That same year his new company introduced the term favrile in conjunction with its first blown glass production. Early examples of his lamps were exhibited at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, and he registered the term favrile on 13 November 1894. He then extended the use of this term to his entire production of glass, enamel and ceramics. The first commercially produced lamps date from around 1895. Much of his company's production was the manufacture of stained glass for windows and the creation of lamps, although his company designed a complete range of decorative objects for interiors. At its peak, his factory employed more than 300 craftsmen. Tiffany used all his skills to design his own house in Oyster Bay, New York, Long Island, which had 84 rooms and was completed in 1904. It was later donated to his foundation for art students, along with 243,000 m² of land, but was destroyed by fire in 1957. Tiffany maintained a close relationship with the family-owned Tiffany Company.