Compote, Pink and Amethyst

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONThis is a Tiffany compote of pink and pale purple striped glass. Around the rim of the compote the color deepens into darker shades of purple.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 compote is made using the Filigrana technique. Filigrana is Italian for filigree glass and is the name for blown glass made with colorless, white, or sometimes colored glass canes or rods. This style originated on the island of Murano in Italy in the 16th century and spread to other parts of Europe where Venetian glass was produced. This particular compote features the use of ‘vetro a fili’ or ‘glass with threads,’ meaning it is blown glass with canes that form a series of parallel lines.HOW WAS IT USED?A compote is a long-stemmed dish typically used to hold fruit, nuts, or candy.WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE THIS?The design for this compote may have been derived from a 16th century Venetian glass form called a tazza. Tazzas were stemmed, shallow cups used by the elite for drinking wine. Some 16th century tazzas were made using the ‘vetro a fili’ technique, the same technique used to make this compote.To see other Tiffany compotes in the Johnson Museum’s collection, search for object numbers 57.086, 64.0873, 64.0898, 64.0902, 68.209, and 68.210 in the keyword search box.