Color is to the Eye what Music is to the Ear

Louis Comfort Tiffany, 1848-1933

The son of Charles Tiffany, the celebrated jeweler and founder of Tiffany & Co., Louis Comfort Tiffany was an artist, innovator, and pioneer of form and color. Born in New York City in 1848, he began his career as a painter in the late 1860s, studying under a series of masters.

This stunning Tiffany Studios Peony table lamp sold for $201,600
at Rago Auctions in July against a presale estimate of $60,000-$80,000.

In the mid-1870s, he turned his attention away from painting and toward the family business of decorative arts and interior design. He built a strong reputation, even participating in the 1882 redecoration of the White House.

Despite being highly regarded for his interior design work, Tiffany was increasingly drawn to art glass production, working for several glass manufacturers from 1875-1878 and honing his skills to bring him the greatest recognition. In 1881, he filed his first patent in glass production, pioneering a new method in glass-tiled mosaic design. In 1885, Tiffany opened an affiliated interior design company, Tiffany Glass Company, which later changed its name to Tiffany Studios. This new company specialized in designing private interiors and public spaces, working with numerous clients, including the Art Institute of Chicago.

In 1892, Tiffany received a patent for a new technique in glass production that established his place in art glass history: Favrile blown glass. Favrile glass is created by treating molten glass with metallic oxides to create a colored glass. Before the invention of Favrile glass, iridescent art glass was made by simply applying color, in the form of paint or enamel, over a piece of colorless glass. Tiffany displayed his Favrile glass at the 1900 Paris Exhibition, where it won the Grand Prize.

This exceptional Tiffany Studios Lotus Pagoda table lamp, c. 1910, 26 1/2 in.
h. by 26 1/4 in. dia., sold for $189,000 at Rago Auctions in March 2024.

In 1898, Tiffany Studios began manufacturing lighting fixtures and lamps. A year later, Tiffany added enamelwork to his firm’s repertoire and, later, ceramics. He continued to advance the use of Favrile glass, designing glass mosaics for use in interior settings and innovating as he did with new modeling, shading, and cutting techniques. Upon his father’s death in 1902, Tiffany assumed the roles of Vice President and Art Director of Tiffany & Co. He watched the company’s bottom line fastidiously, ending production of any item that went unsold for one year.

No amount of careful accounting could safeguard Tiffany Studios against the shift in public taste during the 1920s. The scrolls and natural curves integral to Tiffany’s designs gave way to the right angles of Modernism. Tiffany Studios declared bankruptcy in 1932. Louis C. Tiffany died a year later, personally bankrupt and in relative obscurity. That obscurity was not to last; scholars rediscovered Tiffany’s work in the 1950s, followed by the art market a decade later.

Today works by Louis Comfort Tiffany and Tiffany Studios are highly sought after in the modern art market. Collectors value them for their high production quality, intricate, nature-inspired designs, and stunning use of colored glass.

Fontaine’s Fine & Decorative Arts auction on Sept. 28 will include a pair of Louis Tiffany & Associated
Artists lanterns from the Cornelius Vanderbilt II Mansion (above left, estimate $80,000-$100,000);
a Tiffany Studios Peony Floor Lamp (above right, estimate $125,000-$175,000) and Tiffany Studios
“Four Seasons” entryway from St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church (above, $75,000-$100,000). For
more information on the event, go to the website.

You may also like:

Tiffany Studios

Eclectic Tiffany

Tiffany Style Lamp