Tiffany Studios

Skinner, Bolton, Massachusetts, May 15, 1992, lot 415

Paul E. Doros, The Art Glass of Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York, 2013, p. 198 (for the present lot illustrated)

Both Louis Tiffany and his glasshouse’s superintendent, Arthur Nash, were exceptionally knowledgeable on the history of Italian glassmaking. Tiffany was familiar with it through his many travels and personal collection and Nash because of his early training in Stourbridge, England. The vase offered here is highly reminiscent of Venetian vitro di trina glassware. Developed in the mid 16th century, these objects feature transparent glass encasing intersecting white threads creating a netted or lacelike pattern.

Tastes were quickly changing after World War I and Tiffany Studios made several attempts to contend with this trend. Classic Italian designs, with their clean lines and decoration, were very much in vogue. This particular vase, made relatively late in the company’s history, clearly mimics vitro di trina yet still remains true to many of Tiffany’s decorative precedents. It is made of transparent glass, however in a double gourd shape, a well-known form in Asian decorative arts but totally atypical of anything being made in Italy. In addition, the intersecting threads are not opaque white but translucent orange, blue and green and there is an additional interior gold iridescence. The absence of the technique in any other known Favrile vase is an indication that, despite the economic necessity to meet changing tastes, Tiffany’s glasshouse was irreversibly connected to its past traditions.

–PD