The Doros Collection: The Art Glass of Louis Comfort Tiffany

Tiffany Studios

"Agate" Vase

Auction Closed

December 8, 12:14 AM GMT

Estimate

12,000 - 18,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Tiffany Studios

"Agate" Vase

circa 1909

Favrile glass

engraved 5872D L.C. Tiffany-Favrile

7 inches (17.8 cm) high

Overall in very good condition. When viewed firsthand the vase displays a wide variety of yellow shades ranging from warm to cool tones. The glass with occasional minor air bubbles, particulate inclusions and surface irregularities which are inherent in the making and not visually distracting. The glass surfaces throughout with scattered, very fine and light surface scratches consistent with age and gentle handling. The widest register of the vase with some slightly more concentrated surface scratches only visible upon very close inspection. The iridized interior with some minor traces of surfaces soiling and minor scattered white accretions. The underside of the vase is applied with a Doros Collection accession number. A gorgeous example of the Agate technique with vibrant coloration and dynamic, dimensional patterning to the decoration.

The lot is sold in the condition it is in at the time of sale. The condition report is provided to assist you with assessing the condition of the lot and is for guidance only. Any reference to condition in the condition report for the lot does not amount to a full description of condition. The images of the lot form part of the condition report for the lot. Certain images of the lot provided online may not accurately reflect the actual condition of the lot. In particular, the online images may represent colors and shades which are different to the lot's actual color and shades. The condition report for the lot may make reference to particular imperfections of the lot but you should note that the lot may have other faults not expressly referred to in the condition report for the lot or shown in the online images of the lot. The condition report may not refer to all faults, restoration, alteration or adaptation. The condition report is a statement of opinion only. For that reason, the condition report is not an alternative to taking your own professional advice regarding the condition of the lot. NOTWITHSTANDING THIS ONLINE CONDITION REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE/BUSINESS APPLICABLE TO THE RESPECTIVE SALE.

Christie’s New York, October 25-27, 1979, lot 854

Alastair Duncan, Tiffany At Auction, New York, 1981, p. 34, fig. 75 (for the present lot illustrated)
Paul Doros, The Art Glass of Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York, 2013, pp. 158 and 160 (for the present lot illustrated)

Imitating Nature –

The "Agate" Technique

Louis C. Tiffany’s love of nature extended to his fascination to gems and stones, a fondness enhanced by his many trips as a child to Tiffany & Company. He readily employed semi-precious stones in some of his earliest commissions and continued to do so for many of his firm’s interior design projects. As early as 1890, humble quartz pebbles that he and his children gathered on the shores of Oyster Bay were incorporated into his leaded glass windows and lamp shades. This fascination is further revealed in his glasshouse’s highly successful attempts to imitate the sliced and polished sections of agates. Tiffany was probably further influenced by his knowledge that agates were frequently used as a decorative element by the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Tiffany was hardly the first person to attempt imitating cut agate in glass; that honor belongs to Friederich Egermann, a Bohemian glassmaker, and his Lithyalin glass that first appeared in 1829. Tiffany’s Favrile “Agate” glass, however, came the closest to replicating the actual appearance of the sliced sections of striated and banded agate. The first attempts at manufacturing “Agate” glass were used in the sheet glass for the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company’s early leaded glass windows. The glass was adapted for blown vessels shortly thereafter and “Agate” vases were produced until the mid-1920s.

- PD