The Doros Collection: The Art Glass of Louis Comfort Tiffany
The Doros Collection: The Art Glass of Louis Comfort Tiffany
Covered "Indian Pipe" Vase
Auction Closed
December 8, 12:14 AM GMT
Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Tiffany Studios
Covered "Indian Pipe" Vase
circa 1900
enameled copper
impressed S1161 with the firm’s paper label
6½ inches (16.5 cm) high
7 inches (17.8 cm) diameter
Tiffany’s Glass Evolution –
Enameled Works
The Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company’s exhibition at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle was a landmark event for the firm, cementing its reputation as one of the world’s preeminent manufacturers of artistic objects. Articles encompassing the full gamut of the company’s production, ranging from blown glass vases to mosaic panels to leaded glass windows, were displayed. Perhaps, however, no group of objects garnered more attention, and critical acclaim, than their new line of enameled pieces.
Louis C. Tiffany was fascinated with glass as an artistic medium and enamel, which is essentially powdered glass fused onto a metal body, was a natural decorative technique for him to explore. He was assisted in this exploration by his chief chemist, Dr. Parker McIlhiney, and four of the “Tiffany Girls”: Alice Gouvy, Julia Munson, Lillian Palmié and Patricia Gay. Together, they developed an iridescent enamel and, more significantly, a translucent enamel that allowed hints of the copper body to be seen through the enamel. Furthermore, many of the pieces employed repoussé, which added to the three-dimensionality of the design.
This covered vase, with its unique motif of an Indian pipe plant, was one of the first pieces of enamel created by the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company and was featured in the firm’s display at the Paris Exposition. It was immediately noticed by contemporary art critics. One reviewer of the exposition mentioned “a metal jar…bears a unique ‘Indian pipe’ design in enamel, applied in a novel manner.” Another wrote “a fifth case contains a remarkable collection of enamels on metal, in which the designs are, as is proper, more naturalistic, several of them being drawn from America wild flowers, such as the Indian pipe…” The piece offered here is an exquisite and historically important example of the firm’s finest work in the medium.
- PD