Glass Accrington’s Tiffany Glass Treasures by Jack Tempest Tiffany Glass was produced at the American works of Louis Comfort Tiffany, son of the famous New York jeweller Charles Tiffany. Instead of joining his father’s successful company, Louis decided to set up in Tiffany table lamps were business on his own account specialising in especially popular, this is an sumptuous interior decoration and working original lamp bought privately on the impressive homes of wealthy as an example was lacking in Americans. He also worked on the interior Joseph Brigg’s gift. The style is décor of the White House, Washington. A popular Tiffany art nouveau commercially well copied He had founded his business in 1879 and his Joseph Briggs. product, an iridescent gold today! interest in rich furnishings and exotic décor led him to take a glass ornament and named great interest in attractive ornamental glassware. He successfully ‘Jack in the Pulpit’ after the developed a positive technique for the manufacture of lustre wild flower that suggested its design. glass which he patented in 1881. Within a few years Louis Tiffany was producing a striking range of fancy glassware ranging from coloured glass for glazing windows to the production of interesting decorative ornaments. It is a fact that products of the company were always of first-class quality because of Tiffany’s experiments with various metal oxides, copper salts, selenium, uranium, even gold. Uranium gave a yellowish-green tint to glassware. Black could be produced by using a mixture of manganese oxide, iron, and cobalt, whilst cobalt alone or copper oxide could produce blue glass. His discoveries also included methods of creating the iridescent qualities of glassware. Treating the surface of glass items with certain chemicals added an interesting ‘crackle’ effect to the finish. The addition of basalt or talc to molten glass A sample of a mosaic panel resulted in lava glass. Mixing two differently coloured opaque intended for the interior of an glasses resulted in a marblised effect referred to as agate ware. American church. The lettering Talented design suggested by The objets d’art his firm manufactured also included table lamps, is from ‘The Lord’s Prayer’. peacock feathers ornaments vases, ornamental tiles, and illustrated mosaic panelling. The this glass vase. actual glass itself was created by differing methods to offer inter- esting textures which lent significance to items decorated in the style of the then European fashion for what was the popular fashionable new art nouveau style. Young Tiffany had travelled widely overseas to gain ideas presented by the cathedrals of Europe and from the artefacts discovered by the Victorian archaeologists working in the Middle East and North Africa. He was also impressed by Far Eastern folk art and Japanese art. His particular interest was fired by the discoveries of ancient glassware of the iridescent type. Many ornamental examples that were unearthed had acquired fascinating natural tints which Tiffany began to get his skilled glass-workers to reproduce. Tiffany’s glassware was exactly what his customers wanted! He had long studied the mechanical production of various glasses. Translucent reactive glass was produced, in some cases, with internal decoration and having its colour changed by reheating. The millifiori glass gained its character from the use of slivers of patterned glass rods of differing colours, and the cameo glass had its design added to by scraping and grinding tools. Three charming decorative The Tiffany glass-working skills were constantly improving and examples of different Tiffany A selection of coloured glass giving the world a break from years of Victorian artwork by products. tiles. welcoming the growing interest in the new art nouveau style that ANTIQUES INFO - July/August 07 Glass was taking the lead in the fashion world of the day. Tiffany’s right-hand man was an Englishman named Joseph Briggs who had left England in the 1880s at the age of seventeen to seek his fortune across the Atlantic. He was an artistically talented youth who left school to become a textile designer in a local calico-printing mill in the Lancashire town of Accrington. Briggs eventually managed to become an employee of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s company during a visit to the USA where his artistic talents were soon recognised. He was ultimately promoted to the firm’s Art Director and the Personal Assistant of Louis Comfort Tiffany himself! His hard work and clever design ideas played an important part in Tiffany’s international success. Unfortunately the wind of change was destined to blow and, in 1914, a World War was about to erupt. Wars cause many changes to our ways of life and Tiffany’s began to lose trade as a result of the world-wide conflict which was to create a change in fashions. Amongst the changes brought about by the war was a transformation of Tiffany sterling silver mounted cut glass vase, 6.75in. Louis tastes. When the war was finally over, amongst things never to return, was Taylor, Stoke on Trent. Sep 03. the old appeal of art nouveau design. Public demand switched from natural HP: £310. ABP: £364. forms to the cubism of the new art deco style of design. The effect on Tiffany’s was simply disastrous! The closure of the company had to be faced and Joseph Briggs, who had worked hard to popularise the firm’s products across the many years, now found himself having to find places to dispose Tiffany Favrile iridescent glass vase, c1900, 22.5cm of the unsaleable mass of unwanted stock. The story goes that most of the high. Rupert Toovey & Co, unused quarries in the New York area were eventually filled up with Washington, Sussex. May 03. Tiffany’s unsaleable goods! HP: £3,000. ABP: £3,528. Given that wars bring changes, the end of the Second World War curiously led to a returned widespread interest in Tiffany’s products and, though it was too late to bring back the factory, their surviving products became avidly sought after by collectors around the world, a demand that gave them the Tiffany & Co opalescent green respect as well as the high values associated with genuine antiques, though glass jar & cover, brass metal they had not then quite reached the hundred years usually confirming the leafage cut overlay cover, ‘antiques’ description! Today surviving Tiffany items are now classed as brass inner liner, impressed genuine antiques having been created 100 years or so previously, and are ‘Tiffany Studios New York’, accorded the high values that connoisseurs would be willing to pay to own 16.5cm high. Locke & England, Leamington Spa. such surviving good examples! May 03. HP: £250. ABP: £294. In the 1930s Joseph Briggs visited England and his old Lancashire hometown of Accrington and brought with him a selection of items from his personal Tiffany collection. Some items he gave to the relatives and friends he visited and the greatest gift of Tiffany products was presented to the town’s museum. Some 140 wonderful Tiffany products are now, thanks to the international revival of interest, expertly displayed in the town’s Haworth Art Gallery. At the time of presentation the collection was politely accepted, and then discreetly placed in a store room to be almost forgotten until Tiffany’s popularity suddenly returned. Its value shot sky-high as a result, and the items were put on permanent display at the town’s Haworth Art Gallery, once the dignified residence of a local textile manufacturer, where visitors may now see the wonderful display free of charge. Tiffany Favrile glass vase. On the next two pages is a price guide to Twentieth Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury. Sep 00. HP: £1,300. Century Art Glass. This consists of approximately fifty ABP: £1,529. images, descriptions and prices from real sales at UK auctions in the last several years. All of the lots shown fetched over £1,000 including premium. Middle and lower market glass under a £1,000 can be found on our price guide database at: www.antiques-info.co.uk Tiffany Favrile vase, moulded slender tapering form with The Haworth Art Gallery is open on Wednesdays flared rim, peacock irides- Thursdays, and Fridays as well as Bank Holiday Small Tiffany Favrile glass cence, gilt metal and green Mondays from 2pm to 5pm and on Saturdays and vase and dish, the vase 05158 fluted spreading base moulded Sundays from 12 noon to 4.30 pm. Closed on engraved, 8.5cm, the dish with stylized foliage, signed ‘LCT’ engraved 13cm, both Mondays and Tuesdays. Special guided tours and and inscribed 159, 12.25in early 20thC. Woolley & high. Andrew Hartley, Ilkley, Fine example of group visits can be arranged during closed hours. Wallis, Salisbury. Sep 00. HP: W Yorks. Feb 06. HP: £120. Tiffany’s artwork. Telephone enquiries:- 01254-233782. £470. ABP: £552. ABP: £141. ANTIQUES INFO - July/August 07 .