Tiffany Studios

Christie’s New York, June 13, 1987, lot 179

The dating of blown Favrile objects is not an exact science and there are currently two proposed methods. The first was suggested by Robert Koch in Louis C. Tiffany’s Glass-Bronzes-Lamps (1971). He based his system on A. Douglas Nash’s response to a reader’s question in the December 1926 issue of Antiques magazine: “Each article of Favrile glass is marked with the Tiffany name or initials, and all unusual pieces bear a number, the letters of the alphabet being used first as a prefix, later as a suffix to the numbers.” Nash, as an executive in the company, must have been privy to such proprietary information. Koch’s system is somewhat simplistic, however, and is incorrect in its assumption that items with an X-prefix were experimental and that the o-prefix signified a special-order piece.

Martin Eidelberg proposed a second dating system in his Tiffany Favrile Glass and the Quest of Beauty (2007). By examining the numbers and accompanying prefix or suffix letters on numerous pieces whose production dates were known, he devised an overall dating method. In many ways, though, Eidelberg’s method supports Koch’s basic premise. Therefore, when attempting to establish a date of production for any given item, one should incorporate both the Koch and Eidelberg systems into account. Yet, even after adapting that procedure, precise dating is frequently problematic. This is especially true as innumerable pieces left the glasshouse unsigned. Also, Favrile objects made pre-1900 are difficult to date as the company simultaneously employed three unique numbering systems.

Many, if not most, of the blown glass vases made around 1902 and marked with a V prefix, such as the piece offered here, as well as lots 310 and 333, seem to be decorated in a highly unusual, almost experimental, manner. Perhaps the glasshouse, coming off its heady success at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, decided to be even more daring in its offerings. Or maybe the explanation is related to the glasshouse’s transition from the Stourbridge Glass Company to Tiffany Furnaces in 1902. Whatever the reason, these V-prefix pieces frequently exemplify the ingenuity and imagination of Tiffany’s world-class craftsmen.

- PD