Object Details
Artist
Louis Comfort Tiffany
Date
1892-1930
Medium
Copper
Dimensions
Height: 2 1/2 inches (6.4 cm)
Diameter: 3 1/4 inches (8.3 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Louis Comfort Tiffany through the courtesy of A. Douglas Nash
Object
Number
57.099
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
This is a small copper Tiffany vase with lustrous enamel decoration in a natura(…)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
This is a small copper Tiffany vase with lustrous enamel decoration in a naturalistic form.
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?
This copper vase is decorated with vitreous enamel. Enamel is a substance of finely powdered glass colored with metallic oxides and suspended within an oily medium to allow application. The medium is then burned away during firing within a kiln at a temperature between 965 and 1300 degrees Fahrenheit. Often, multiple firings are needed for the different pigments within an object, depending on the size or the intricacy of the object. The result is the colorful, glass-like surface. The relief designs were made with a technique called repoussé.
WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE THIS?
Notice how certain sections are rough with round, raised green iridescent forms. Do the decorations and form of the vase remind you of anything in nature?This vase, like other Tiffany pieces, is referred to as Art Nouveau. Art Nouveau, French for “New Art,” refers to an artistic style that was developed in Europe in the 1880s, and remained enormously popular into the first decade of the 20th century. It is characterized by whiplash curves, organic imagery and sinuous lines. The name Art Nouveau came from the Paris shop of Siegfried Bing that opened in 1895, quickly popularizing the works of artists like Louis Comfort Tiffany, whose work became synonymous with (or symbolic of) the American Art Nouveau style.
