Vase, Iridescent Green

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONThis is a Tiffany vase of green iridescent glass. The vase has been manipulated so that it features indentations throughout its surface, highlighting the iridescence of the surface and giving it a sculptural appearance.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. While the glass was still hot, it was manipulated into this irregular form.This vase features pale pink luster decoration on the surface. Luster is a form of staining. This shiny metallic effect involves 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?With its curving, organic amorphous form this an interesting example of Tiffany’s Art Nouveau style. 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.