Paperweight

BRIEF DESCRIPTION
This Tiffany paperweight is made of clear glass, backed with translucent gold and blue glass.

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?
Beneath a dome of clear glass is a blue glass cabochon that has been covered with shimmering gold luster. Luster is a form of staining. To achieve this shiny effect, metallic oxides that have been dissolved in acid and mixed with an oily medium are applied to the surface of the object. The glass object is then fired in a kiln at a temperature around 1150 degrees Fahrenheit, depositing a film upon the surface that, when cleaned becomes shiny.

HOW WAS IT USED?
A paperweight is a small heavy object designed to hold down papers. First made in Venice and France in the 1840s, glass paperweight production spread to other parts of Europe and the United States. Although they lost popularity in the early 1920s, their production was revived in the 1950s.

To see another Tiffany paperweight in the Johnson Museum’s collection, search for object number 57.085 in the keyword search box.