Tiffany Studios

Crombie Taylor, Chicago, IL, acquired in the mid 1960s
Acquired from the above by Bruce and Adele Randall, Laurel Hollow, NY, circa 1970
Private Collection

Masterworks of Louis Comfort Tiffany, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., September 29, 1989-March 4, 1990
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, April 12-September 9, 1990
Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Museum, Tokyo, Japan, January 12-March 17, 1991
Kobe City Museum, Kobe, Japan, April 6-May 12, 1991
Electricity Museum Gallery, Nagoya, Japan, May 18-June 23, 1991
Toyama Citizens Plaza, Toyama, Japan, June 30-July 26, 1991

Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Louis Comfort Tiffany at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, 1998, p. 34 (for a Magnolia and Iris Window in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art) 
Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, et al., Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall:  An Artist's Country Estate, New York, 2006, pp. 31-33 (for three Tiffany Magnolia panels originally installed in the New York City residence of Charles Tiffany and later moved to Laurelton Hall)

The leaded glass panels are in very good stable condition. The proper left panel with approximately 3 cracks to the glass tiles dispersed throughout. The central panel with approximately 20 cracks to the glass tiles dispersed throughout. The proper right panel with approximately 1 crack. A few of these cracks, which appear to be quite old, appear to have been stabilized in the past with glue. There are a few very small and minor scattered surface abrasions and flecks to the glass tiles adjacent to lead lines. From the verso, all of the leaded glass and caming surrounding the perimeter borders of each panel appear entirely stable. There is a tiny seperation to the caming (not a loss) on the central panel located at the proper upper right corner where the top and side caming meet (1/8 x 1/4 inch gap). On the verso, a few of the glass tiles with small and minor edge flecks and chips along adjacent edges of the leading (all inherent in the making during the process of cutting the glass). Framing: The three leaded glass panels are installed within one continuous oak frame with two interior vertical stiles dividing the panels. (Please feel welcome to contact the department for additional photographs showing the framing.) The oak frame appears to be an old replacement. On the verso, the frame was designed with thin strips of oak attached along the interior perimeter borders of the three panels for stabilization. There is some minor separation to some of the mitred corners on these interior frame stiles, and some are slightly loose. On the verso of the frame, the proper lower right corner with remnants of a small old paper label and adhesive. The front surfaces of the frame with some occasional surface scratches and abrasions commensurate with age, and with small traces of what appears to be an old black paper tape along some of the perimeter edges. The front members of the frame showing some slight irregularity in color to the finish which appears to be inherent in the wood selection. Sotheby’s has designed a custom lightbox for the gallery installation of this window, which if desired will be given to the purchaser.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Tiffany's Magnolias:  Dimensions in Color
Julie L. Sloan

The magnolia was one of Tiffany Studios' favorite flowers.  Depicted in some of the firm's most celebrated windows and lampshades, the heavy, languorous blossom lent itself well to decorative treatment in glass (as well as in other materials).  The studio often created it from drapery glass – a thick glass pushed into ridges and folds while still hot--capturing the flower's velvety texture and the voluptuous undulations of its petals in three-dimensional verisimilitude.  One might expect the white flowers deepened with mauve and brightened with yellow centers to dictate a quiet palette, and often they did, as in the windows made for Tiffany's 72^nd Street house in New York (fig. 1) or for the mausoleum window "Magnolias and Irises" now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  In the present example, the studio unleashed the full drama of its unique multi-colored glass to create an astonishingly vibrant composition. 

Using no drapery glass or plating (layers of glass), all of the modeling relies on the accidental swirls and ribbons of color within a single sheet of glass, and the gifted vision of the artisans who could select this square inch or that one from a sheet.  It boggles the mind to imagine how many sheets must have been required to find such brilliant passages where varying densities of nacreous white opalescent glass fall amid fingers of pale blue and flaming pink.  This small jewel of a window required a bold and confident eye at the glass bins to know which sheets of unlikely color combinations would work together.

What sets this window above its peers are the end panels, and their transition to the sides of the central panel.  Bearing only a single blossom each, they open to a gloriously colored sky.  Here is some of the most opulent Tiffany glass ever found in a window.  Ringing, vibrant tones of azure, turquoise, emerald, apricot, lemon, and cream combine in one piece that is boldly placed next to another of deep regal purple streaked with lavender and mauve.  Strongly colored glass like this can easily overpower a design, but here each piece holds its own in a masterfully controlled riot of flaming color.  Of equal quality is the amazing cutting of the glass.  Passage after passage is composed of pieces pulled from the same sheet without loss amid a complex of organically shaped lines.  This represents the utmost skill among craftsmen, a ranking feature of Tiffany Studio's finest work.

The center panel teems with flowers and branches.  The view is into the center of the magnolia tree – we see no trunk, no ground, no treetop.  It is as if we are sitting within its branches looking outward.  While this is an unusual perspective for a window, it is not so unusual for a lampshade, in which the designers often created the impression of being within the canopy of the tree or shrub.  Careful examination of this window's pattern reveals it to be identical to a single repeat of the studio's twenty-eight inch Magnolia shade pattern (fig. 2), with minor changes to render it into a flat panel.  Given the density of the flowers and branches within the composition, it seems likely that the design was made first to be a lampshade, then altered into a window.  This is a highly unusual crossover between the lampshade and window departments within Tiffany Studios.  Other instances are not known, but also have not been researched.  Further study may reveal a deeper relationship between the departments.

The design of the Magnolia shade can be attributed to Clara Driscoll of the Women's Glass Cutting Department at Tiffany Studios between 1906 and 1910.  It is not possible to know when within that time span the window was created, nor under what circumstances.  But given the quality of glass used in the window and the degree of skill involved in its manufacture, it was a valuable commission. It appears to have been an interior window for a residence, given the absence of weathering. 

REFERENCED WORKS:

Martin Eidelberg, Nina Gray, and Margaret Hofer, A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls (New York:  New-York Historical Society, 2007).

Martin Eidelberg, Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Nancy McClelland, and Lars Rachen, The Lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany (New York: Vendome Press, 2005).