Object Details
Artist
Louis Comfort Tiffany
Date
ca. 1921
Medium
Red and green reactive crystal
Dimensions
Height: 6 1/2 inches (16.5 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Louis Comfort Tiffany through the courtesy of A. Douglas Nash
Object
Number
57.104
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
This is a Tiffany vase made from reactive glass. Notice the swirling variations(…)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
This is a Tiffany vase made from reactive glass. Notice the swirling variations of color in the 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?
This vase was blown from mostly opaque, partly translucent colored reactive glass. Reactive glass is a type of glass, developed by Tiffany & Co. that changes color when it is reheated. To see another Tiffany vase made from reactive glass in the Johnson Museum’s collection, search for object number 57.079 in the keyword search box.
WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE THIS?
This type of glass is specifically referred to as Agate or Calcedonio glass, Italian for Chalcedony. Calcedonio is glass that is marbled with brown, blue, green or yellow swirls in order to imitate chalcedony and other semiprecious stones. Calcedonio was first manufactured in Venice in the late 15th century and resembles a beautiful piece of stone or marble.
