Vase

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Vase

Designer Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848-1933)

Manufacturer Tiffany Studios; Tiffany Furnaces (American)

Dateabout 1899

DimensionsH 31.8 cm (12 1/2 in.); D rim 15.3 cm (6 in.); D base 8.9 cm (3 1/2 in.)

MediumCypriot vase. Translucent yellow-green glass.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Carl B. Spitzer

Object number

1988.109

On View

Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion (2444 Monroe Street), Glass Pavilion Gallery, 3

DescriptionBlown and finished by tooling. Applied, embedded leaflike decoration. The surface, somewhat iridescent and textured dark brown and gold, was created by a reducing flame on the metallic salts and oxides in the glass. Applied polished button pontil.

Label TextAs an artist, designer, and tastemaker, Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933) altered the course of American decorative arts. Tiffany called his entire line of vessel glass Favrile, after an Old English word for “handmade.” His signature lustrous iridescent glass was inspired by the colorful chemical corrosion on the surface of ancient glass and was produced, as Tiffany explained, “by forming a film of a metal or its oxide, or a compound of a metal, on or in the glass either by exposing it to vapors or gases or by direct application.”Published ReferencesRevi, Albert Christian, American Art Nouveau, Camden, N.J., and Toronto, Nelson, 1968, pp. 23-25 (chronology of glassworks in Corona);

Koch, Robert, Louis C. Tiffany's Glass-Bronzes-Lamps: The Complete Collector's Guide, New York, Crown, 1971, pp. 54-56 (Tiffany's registering system).

Koch, Robert, Louis C. Tiffany's Art Glass, New York, Crown, 1977, pp. 11-12, 23, 40 (registering system).

Donald L. Stover, The Art of Louis Comfort Tiffany, exh. cat., M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, 1981, pp. 67-68, nos. 104 and esp. 102 (very similar vases);

Journal of Glass Studies, vol. 32, 1990, p. 200, repr. fig. 30.

Wilson, Kenneth M., American Glass, 1760-1930: The Toledo Museum of Art, New York: Hudson Hills Press in association with the Toledo Museum of Art, [Lanham, Md.]: National Book Network [distributor], c1994; 2 v. (879 p.): ill. (some col.); 32 cm., 1994, p. 623, no. 1006.