- Date
- ca. 1900
- Accession number
- 2004.7
- Dimensions
- height: 18 1/2 in. (47 cm.)
- Medium
- glass
- Description
- A towering figure in American art and design, Louis Comfort Tiffany was born in New York City to the founder of the famous jewelry store, Tiffany & Co. Initially, he shunned the family business and set out to be a painter, later turning to more commercial ventures, such as designing elaborate interiors. When he learned there was no major glass industry in the United States, he developed an interest in furthering the use of glass as an original art form; and by 1875, he had begun to work with stained glass for which he is primarily known.
In his thinking about glass, Tiffany was greatly influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement and the work of William Morris, whom he visited in England in 1867. Later travels in Europe exposed him to Art Nouveau, an international style that celebrated sinuous curves and organic forms. By displacing entrenched historical styles, Art Nouveau helped set the stage for modernism, blurring old distinctions between fine art and applied or decorative art.
By 1892, Tiffany's goal was to produce innovative, sculptural, one-of-a-kind blown glass objects, of which this lustrous Favrile Glass Fern Vase is a monumental example. The natural, organic forms were, at least initially, based on specific designs created by Tiffany, modified by the fluid nature of the medium itself. Glass of varying colors and densities was blown so that the lines or veins of color expressed the character and structure of the material. Each object was the result of a precise combination of materials, heat and artistry.
With the success of his commercial ventures, Tiffany built Laurelton Hall, an 84-room mansion on a 580-acre tract of land near Oyster Bay, Long Island. One of the most talked about homes in American at the turn of the century, the grand estate was the most personal and extensive project of the artist's career, and where he kept his most precious treasures. In 1919, Tiffany established a foundation to give art students the benefit of study in the beautiful surroundings of Laurelton Hall and the inspiration of his extensive art collection. After his death in 1933, the foundation continued to function at the site; however, in 1946, the Trustees reorganized the foundation and liquidated the estate, selling the buildings of Laurelton Hall and their contents, including Tiffany's notable collection of art. This vase was lot number 271 of that 1946 sale. Described as a "Baluster-form vase with incurvate molded neck, in brilliant green iridescent glass with foliage decoration," it is one of the few pieces actually illustrated in the catalogue. The vase retains its original paper label, which helps date it to around 1900.
Clearly prized by Tiffany himself, this Favrile Glass Fern Vase is an important complement to the two other pieces of Tiffany glass in The Huntington's collection: a small, earlier non-luster Favrile vessel, and a later lily-light lamp.
- Credit
- The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from the Art Collectors' Council
- Department
- American Art
