Lot 339 : TIFFANY STUDIOS
Auction Location: United States of America - 2006
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Description:
A SUPERB AND RARE AQUAMARINE VASE
measurements note
10 3/8 in. (27.3 cm) high
ca. 1913
engraved 1977H L.C. Tiffany-Favrile
favrile glass
PROVENANCE
Christie's New York, May 30, 1981, lot 333
LITERATURE
Elizabeth Lounsbery, "Aquamarine Glass," American Homes and Gardens, vol. 10, December 1913, p. 419 (for a period illustration of a similar aquamarine vase)
Albert Christian Revi, American Art Nouveau Glass, Camden, NJ, 1968, p. 61, pl. 94 (for an illustration of an aquamarine glass doorstop with nearly identical decoration in the collection of the New York Historical Society)
Robert Koch, Louis C. Tiffany's Art Glass, New York, 1977, p. 28 (for a related example in the collection of the Haworth Art Gallery, Accrington, Lancashire, England)
Vivienne Couldrey, The Art of Louis Comfort Tiffany, London, 2001, p. 97 (for a related example, Haworth Art Gallery)
Martin Eidelberg and Nancy McClelland, Behind the Scenes of Tiffany Glassmaking: The Nash Notebooks, New York, 2001, p. 75 (for a related example formerly in the collection of Leslie Hayden Nash)
Robert Koch, Louis C. Tiffany, The Collected Works of Robert Koch, New York, 2001, p. 199 (for a related example, Haworth Art Gallery)
Alastair Duncan, Louis C. Tiffany: The Garden Museum Collection, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2004, pp. 264-265 (for related examples and a sketch by Leslie Hayden Nash of two aquamarine vases)
NOTE
In December 1913, when Tiffany Studios first publicized their new line of aquamarine vases through an article which appeared in American Homes and Gardens, little was said about the technical achievements. But it was disclosed that "an example of this glass often weighing twenty-five pounds is manipulated by the glass worker at the end of a five-foot blow-iron or 'pontil' and takes several hours to evolve. Many pieces are lost in 'annealing' the glass, in spite of the care used during the long period necessary to complete this part of the work." This example, which weighs some five pounds, is one of five aquamarine vases which are known to have survived and reminds us of how difficult and rarified this work was.
Interestingly, the marine subjects of these works were described as imitating "the effects obtained by looking through a glass-bottomed boat, such as are used in tropical waters..." Was this conception perhaps due to Tiffany's annual trips to Florida during the winter months? It was also emphasized that the elements of fish and sea weed were not composed decoratively but, rather, they were disposed realistically as they would be seen in nature itself. The glassblowers sought to duplicate the illusive effects of the fishes' fluid motion, of schools darting among diaphanous seaweed. Particularly relevant for this vase which has two dragonflies engraved on the neck, it was written that "a dragon-fly hovering over the surface of the water adds greatly to the decorative effect, as well as to the illusion."
Martin Eidelberg
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