Tiffany Studios

Macklowe Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1992

Robert Koch, Louis C. Tiffany’s Art Glass, New York, 1977, fig. 25 (for a closely related example)
Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall:  An Artist's Country Estate, New York, 2006, p. 122, fig. 204 (for a closely related example formerly in the collection of Louis Comfort Tiffany at Laurelton Hall)
Martin Eidelberg, Tiffany Favrile Glass and the Quest of Beauty, New York, 2007, p. 63 (for two closely related examples)
Paul E. Doros, The Art Glass of Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York, 2013, p. 130 (for a related example)

Tiffany Furnaces never made paperweights in the traditional sense.  However, around 1900, they discovered a technique to encase a decoration between two layers of clear glass.  The design was frequently enhanced by the use of glass millefiori—from the Italian mille (thousand) and fiori (flowers)—and a gold, or orange-gold, iridescence on the vase’s interior surface.  The glasshouse’s initial attempts to produce paperweight vases featured basic shapes, simple designs and an occasional production flaw.  Louis Tiffany, however, quickly realized that this technique would be the perfect medium to express his love of nature, particularly flowers.  The gaffers’ skills and inventiveness improved rapidly, and paperweight vases are among some of the glassworks’ most artistic creations.  This Poppy paperweight vase exemplifies the heights of the gaffer’s abilities.  The graceful baluster-shaped body encasing vivid millefiori-centered flowers dynamically composed amongst stylized foliage clearly demonstrates the glassmaker’s great skill and artistry.   

─Paul Doros