拍品 302
  • 302

TIFFANY STUDIOS | “Frog and Fish” Covered Box

估價
25,000 - 35,000 USD
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描述

  • Tiffany Studios
  • “Frog and Fish” Covered Box
  • impressed 9041/3 with the Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company monogram
  • enameled copper
  • 1 1/2  in. (3.8 cm) high4 1/8  in. (10.5 cm) diameter
  • circa 1900-1903

來源

Louis C. Tiffany Garden Museum, Japan
Acquired from the above by the present owner

出版

Martin Eidelberg and Nancy McClelland, Behind the Scenes of Tiffany Glassmaking: The Nash Notebooks, New York, 2001, p. 119 (for the present lot illustrated)
Alastair Duncan, Louis C. Tiffany: The Garden Museum Collection, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2004, p. 407 (for a period photograph of the present)

Condition

Overall very good condition. This work has been examined and conditioned by a professional conservator specializing in enamel conservation. This piece has also been examined under blacklight and does not show any evidence of prior restoration. The enameled surfaces with some occasional extremely minor irregularities throughout inherent in the making and not visually detractive. The interior of the box lid with a few very small fissures in the enamel, inherent in the making. The box and lid each with some light wear to where the two elements come in contact. The bottom of the box with a very gentle undulation, inherent in the making. Formerly in the collection of the Louis C. Tiffany Garden Museum, Japan, this lot is accompanied by its custom, velvet-lined Garden Museum box. An extremely charming box with beautifully executed enameling to the interior and exterior.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

拍品資料及來源

The Enameled Creatures of Tiffany's Gardens
Lots 302 and 303

Tiffany enamels, just as the Favrile glass objects, were considered unique works of art intended for wealthy collectors.  Tiffany & Company’s 1905 Blue Book listed enameled small trays, bonbonnieres and fancy cabinet pieces at $10 to $50; large bonbon boxes were $50 to $250, and vases ranged between $25 and $300.  Another marketing similarity with Favrile glass was that the firm was willing to offer a few clues concerning the technical innovations in creating their enamel pieces but absolutely refused to go into specifics: “The Tiffany studios have their secrets of detail that are jealously screened from vulgar inspection—that is a matter of business which the public has no right to probe.  The hint given…is sufficient for the inquiring and the curious.”

The two boxes presented here (lots 302 and 303) are illustrative of Tiffany’s more playful decorative side and include wonderfully portrayed frogs, a theme rarely seen in the company’s oeuvre.  The stamp box (lot 303) was probably part of a desk set, as the Virginia Museum of Fine Art (Richmond, VA) has a letter rack in its collection that is similarly signed and numbered EL207.  As that piece was apparently offered in Parke-Bernet’s 1946 auction of objects from Laurelton Hall (lot 321 in that sale), it is highly likely that this stamp box also graced a desk in Tiffany’s mansion.  While the museum’s letter rack depicts a green-spotted frog among tall marsh grass and flowering jack-in-the-pulpits, the stamp box is formed by a very realistic and beautifully conceived crimson-spotted yellow frog on an irregularly shaped mossy patch surrounded by mushrooms of various types, sizes and colors.

The covered box (lot 302) is a superb early example.  The lid is again enhanced with a frog in varying shades of green, resting on a large green lily pad floating on sapphire water, with irregular pink and turquoise streaks simulating the current, bordered by impressionistic water lily blossoms.  The exterior of the body has a matching floral design. The interior of most Tiffany boxes have a very simple light green or dark blue enameled surface, but this piece has a surprise: a large orange carp swimming among dark green seaweed on a sapphire blue ground.

These two pieces vibrantly display all of the supreme creativity and technical command one hopes to find in Tiffany’s finest enamelware.  The shapes and forms are fashioned flawlessly, and the actual enamels are applied as only a master craftsperson can.  The products of Tiffany’s Enamel Department are as treasured today as they were when they originally appeared, and these two pieces are truly indicative of the department’s primary tenet, as expressed by Elizabeth Willmarth, one of its first heads: “Nothing takes too long, costs too much or is too much trouble to produce.”

—Paul Doros