Vase, Blue, Long Neck With Palmette Design
Artist
Louis Comfort Tiffany
(American, 1848–1933)
Dateca. 1910
MediumGlass
DimensionsHeight: 11 inches (27.9 cm)
ClassificationsDecorative Arts
Credit LineEdythe de Lorenzi Collection
Bequest of Otto de Lorenzi
Terms
- Decorative Arts
- Glassware
- Vessels - Vases
- Glass
- Leaves
- Palms
Object number64.0843
Label CopyBRIEF DESCRIPTION
This is a Tiffany vase of cobalt blue iridescent glass. The body features silver/blue luster decorations in the form of palmettes and vertical lines that curve along the neck, with the color deepening into purple and deeper blue.
WHERE WAS IT MADE?
Tiffany glass was made at the Tiffany Glass Furnaces in Corona, located in Queens, New York.
WHO WAS THE ARTIST?
Louis Comfort Tiffany was the eldest son of Charles L. Tiffany, founder of Tiffany & Company, the New York jeweler. Tiffany was trained as a painter, studying with both George Inness and Samuel Coleman in New York and Leon Bailly in Paris. He eventually turned his attention to decorative arts and began experimenting with glass-making techniques in 1875. After success with stained glass windows and mosaics, Tiffany established the Tiffany Glass Company in 1885 and began devoting production to one-of-a-kind blown glass art objects. He soon became one of America’s most prolific designers, providing furniture, wallcoverings, textiles, jewelry and glass to some of society’s most important citizens.
HOW WAS IT MADE?
Like most Tiffany vases, this vase was created using a blowpipe. The iridescence on this large slender vase is called luster, and is a form of staining. This shiny effect comes from covering the surface of a vessel with metallic oxides that have been dissolved in acid and mixed with an oily medium. The vessel is then fired in a kiln at a temperature around 1150 degrees Fahrenheit, depositing a film upon the surface that, when cleaned, becomes shiny.
WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE THIS?
Notice the leaf-like forms on the bulbous part of the vase; these are known as palmettes. Palmettes are a very old fan-shaped motif derived from a palm tree. Tiffany drew inspiration from the ancient styles of Egyptian, Greek and Roman art, utilizing similar forms and decorative motifs in his glasswork.
This vase is an example of Tiffany’s Favrile glass. In 1894, Tiffany patented his iridescent glass under the name Favrile. The word Favrile is derived from the Old English fabrile, meaning hand-wrought. Tiffany design was inspired by glass from ancient Rome and the Islamic world, Venice and Bohemia. Tiffany combined his talent as a colorist, naturalist, and designer with his experimentations on blown glass surfaces. Vessels were fumed with metallic oxides to achieve iridescence. To see other examples of Tiffany’s Favrile glass in the Johnson Museum’s collection, search for object numbers 57.072, 57.080, 57.088, 57.097, 57.106, 64.0840, 64.0841, 64.0842, 64.0850, 64.0865, 64.0875, 64.0879, 64.0885, 64.0889, 64.0898, 64.0904, 99.078.118 a,b, and 2001.075.003 in the keyword search box.
Collections
