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Louis Comfort Tiffany

Favrile Vase
Now On View

Maker

Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848-1933), designer
Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company (American, active 1892-1932), manufacturer

Title

Favrile Vase

Year

ca. 1900

Medium

  • Glass with enamel

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Glass with enamel

Materials

glass, enamel, Favrile glass

Dimensions

Height: 17.8 cm (7 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William Nash Davis

Object Number

1991.176.1

Type

  • Glass

Exhibition History

Happy White Pendleton Bridge Gallery
Dec 19, 2014
Decorative Arts and Design Galleries
Apr 15, 2014
Making It In America
Oct 11, 2013 – Feb 09, 2014

Label copy

Elizabeth A. Williams, curator of decorative arts: These works celebrate organic form and exemplify the philosophy of designer Louis Comfort Tiffany: “Nature is always right. Nature is always beautiful.” Introduced in 1893 after years of experimentation, Favrile glass was inspired by Tiffany’s interest in ancient glass made iridescent by its absorption of minerals in the soil in which it had been buried. Tiffany’s craftsmen finally achieved this lustrous sheen by mixing metallic oxides with molten glass. He described Favrile glass as “distinguished by brilliant or deeply toned colors, usually iridescent like the wings of certain American butterflies, the necks of pigeons and peacocks, the wing covers of various beetles.”

Toots Zynsky, glass artist: Glassmakers have a long history of saving, re-imagining, and re-creating. Did the tall flower-shaped glass with the organically shaped top begin as a mistake? As an experiment? As a response to Art Nouveau’s ever more fluid organic forms? Tiffany learned a great deal from and was inspired by his team of highly skilled glassblowers, metalsmiths, chemists, and other craftspeople.

The “peacock feather” vase is perfectly resolved in form, color, size, and decoration. Created using an adaption of an ancient Egyptian technique, it features Tiffany’s hallmark iridescent surface. Half a century later, the process was determined to be highly toxic, and rarely has been used in recent years.

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848-1933), designer
Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company (American, active 1892-1932), manufacturer
Favrile Vase, ca. 1900
Glass with enamel
Height: 17.8 cm (7 inches)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William Nash Davis 1991.176.1

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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