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Louis Comfort Tiffany, designer

Favrile Vase with Stand, ca. 1900

Now On View

Description

Maker

  • Louis Comfort Tiffany, 1848-1933, American, designer
  • Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company, active 1892-1932, American, retailer

Title

Favrile Vase with Stand

Year

ca. 1900

Medium

Glass and bronze

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • Favrile glass,
  • bronze

Techniques

  • blown glass

Dimensions

Height: 37.2 cm (14 5/8 inches)

Type

  • Glass

Credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph K. Ott

Object Number

83.160

Projects & Publications

Publications

Pendleton Bridge Glass Gallery Guide

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Making It In America

October 11, 2013 - February 9, 2014

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.

Decorative Arts and Design Galleries

Happy White Pendleton Bridge Gallery

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Favrile Vase with Stand with the accession number of 83.160. To request high-resolution files or 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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