'-"M~ AMERICAN CRAFTSMEN'S COUNCIL 29 WEST 53RD STREET, N.Y.19, N.Y. STAFF LIBRARY Cover: Enlarged detail of Favrile glass plate (Cat. No. 17ob). Louis Comfort Tiffany 1848-1933 TEXT, CHRONOLOGY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY BY DR. ROBERT KOCH FOREWORD BY THOMAS S. TIBBS, Director, NfLlseLlIIt of Contemporary Crafts OTES ON THE PLATES BY ROBERT A. LAURER, As istant Director EDITOR OF THE CATALOG, PATRICIA S FRI ,Secretary Museum of Contemporary Crafts ~f the A m erican Craftsmen's Council, New York January 24 throug h April 6, 1958 © 1958 by the Jlusewl1 of Contemporary Crafts, New York Printed in the United States of America Designed by Bert Clarke and produced by Clarke &- lVay, Inc., The Thistle Pres Ii() J' (" \\' () l'( I 'I'll(' <l',,'slioll will illP\ itabh bf' asked why thp \Iu­ 1l1('nt \\ith it fl't'(, cnrvilincar ornallll'lll and olltlin S seulll of Con [(' Ill porarv era ft ha, ass('1ll bl d a one of oflen d('ri\'('d frolll plan t ~)fIllS , il Illll I be r' Ogll iwd its Illajor p,hibili(lll llH' work of LOlli Co 111 fort Ihal he hoth anlicipat'd and outli, 'd it a a style. TiIT<UIY ( I + 19)';)' 'I'll(' great slrid' lilac!' in hand Thus, Wl' eli c('rn in him til(' af'ti t-craft man inler­ craft , and craflman hip during recent \ ('ars havp im­ l' It>d ill a \'ari(>ty of lllat('riais. in craftslllallShip, in portant rooL ill the not too distant past among tho p hon(' tv o[ purpo, e ancl rOl'ln, bllt IllO t particularh a \\ ho n 'aetC'd again t th' totality of th(' machine>. AII\ cn'ator of forlll ' in glas in which are found a mort' , lIch a livil, i of /I1ore t han ell rio, it" vaIn to anyone than caslIal n,lation hip to toda\" ta tt'. ('rioll l~' intcT(' tl,d in contelllporan craft . The c1l,\('lopnll'nl of em c .... hibilioll lead in Illall\ In the pl'r on and th work of LOlli COlt/fort fa cinaling alld often llUe'l1l'ctecl dircction anti els TifTilJl\' w(' hm'e fOUIHl .\ lIlcrica's first modern craft - up a haill of contacts which aI" very rewarding. Thc' man, (>wJnpli[,ing 1IIIICh that w(' stand for loday. Timmy ("hibition was fir I Ilgge led hy \11'. Jack /'ollowing his early carC' r a a pain t 'r, h is in t<'fE'st in L('nor Larsen, of the .\ 111 ri all Craflsllwll' Coun il th ' tI(· oralivc arl rev·al a de '» c()ll\'ictioll LIlat III . hoard of lm t es, and at his sliggeslion we werp !'l1\inmlll(,111 \\ hich lIlan huilt for hilll 'd[WilS ('('oud pleased to c('k til(> advir and slIgg(' lions of \I r. only lo his (,l1\'irOnlllent ill /1, tllr('. I'rolll the form Edgar k aufmanll. lr .. \\ho in 111m hrollgltt to ollr and milt rials provitl d b\ nalun" at\l Pill rgcd attl'ntiol1 1)1'. Hobcrt lwelt, P ro~ , or of \ rt at '\( \\ \\ hich coordinated all a peet of thp d('('orati\'c art. I la\ en "tate Teach ' r Coil'g ' , '\ '\\ lla\'en , ConnE' - This lIlothatcd tlte formation of the Tiffan.\ llidio tiCltl. I)r . " orh's highlY slwcializ!'d kllowledg!' and \\ host' art ist and craftsmen \\ ork"d in lllan Y Illal - r('seareh of Tiffan\ and his work maclc it po ibl(' for rials, prodllcing alll/l8l1\1er of deroral i\'t' ac('c 'ori€ , us to dl'\ (' lop all e,hibilioll of majo)' proportions. both dOIll!'t i alld ('crle ia ,t ira!' Tlw Ill'twork of contact inerca 'ed. ero 'sing and rl'­ E.... lwrilll 'nlat iOIl daillwd Illuch of Tiffany's atteJl­ ero ing many time . \\ e p,pn's, ollr c1(,pp apprpcia tion alld illtprest wilh tltt' n'sldt Ihal lIlP fall I d lion to all ",110 havC' contribUH'd to the SUCCl'SS of the Fa\ rilp glass b('call1(> lite illlporlanlllwdilll1l throllgh (' ... hibitioll \\ itlt inforll1ation and b\ loans f/"(l/II Ih('ir \\hich h(' aclti('\'{'d hi greal' I heights. Th' e ... hibi­ coll('ctiol1 . llnw!:,\'t'r. w e do\\ i' lt loe"'prpssOllrsp ' cial tion (,Illphasiz('s th<' Fa\ ril(' glass \\ork hut het been grati t udl> to \ I r. Collie r Platt , granddaugh tN of can·full\l'lcclcd to 110\\ alo the Illam fac('ts of \J r. Louis C. Tirram, \ 11'. JUl'ph lI pil . \lr. Edgar Ti ff"" I \ 's ('I'cClti"jl\ : Ilis work as a I,deilled pailller. as I... aufiltallll, Jr., alld. in parti lIlar, D r. I ~ob('rt k och . a stain('d glas arl iSI , nalllf'lisl. 1110 airi t. j w{'ln author of tlw catalng te,1 and COlltribulor of the clt·siglll'r and \\orker in lllctal. \\ hill' Tiffany" pan chrnllolog) alld hihliograpll\ . of cn'ative \\'ork t'lIIbl-dl' d tll' \ rl .\OllH'all 1110\'(.'- TIfO \ 1 \ S. ·1'I nilS, Dirt'c(or 5 Vases from the Joseph Heil Collection, with an anliquc Roman vase for comparison. (Left to right: Cat. Nos. 119, 129, 131, 130, 1700) Photograph by Joseph Heil 6 Louis Comfort Tiffany by Dr. Robert Koch More than a painter, more than a decorator, more than a craftsman, Louis C. Tiffany was an organizer, an entrepreneur and an innovator who led his contemporaries in a movement that set new standards of artistry and changed the taste of the nation. He was one of America's fore- 111.0st creative designers. Born in Tew York City on February 18, 1848, the year of his father's first important business success, he was raised as the oldest son in a family that included two girls and a younger boy. It was expected that he would some day succeed hi father as director of Tiffany and Com­ pany. Instead he decided to become a painter. At the age of eighteen, in 1866, he chose an apprenticeship in the studio of George Inness in preference to a college education. As a painter TiJTallY's rapid success was phenomenal. Early landscapes like "View of the Palisades" (Plate NO.1) or "Fuller's Country Store" have much decorative charm. Then, for more than five years, he spent most of his time abroad. He studied in Paris and he traveled in North Africa and in Brittany. He was in Cairo in 1870 and there painted treet scenes, mosques and market places. He quickly established a reputation a" a painter of outdoor genre scenes and was a regular contributor to exhibitions at the Century Club and the rational Academy of Design in New York. At the age of twenty-two, in 1870, he was elected to membership in the Century Club; in 1871 he became an associate lVlember of the National Academy; and in 1880 he was made an Academician. He was also a member of the American Water Color Society and one of the founders of the Society of American Artists where he served as treasurer in 1878. In the decade between 1868 and 1878 he devoted most of his energy to painting. Over thirty pain Ling by Tiffany were seell at the Century Club and fourteen others were included in the ten annuals of the National Academy at this time. The reviews were mostly favorable and many oils and water colors were purchased. His most important painting, "Duane Street" of 1875 (Plate NO.3) is a forceful prefiguration of the work of those New York painters of the early twentieth century known as the" A h Can School." Here the drab quality of the city slum is the 7 subject which is organized into rectangular areas oftexture that give a mood of quiet permanence and dignity to the scene. Another painting "In the Fields at Irvington" of 1878, which repre­ sents his wife and three children, show pim equally able to represent life in the country._One observes the same directness that is char; cteristic of the best paintings by Winslow Homer. By 1878 Tiffany was already involved with the decorative and applied arts. His interest seems to stem from the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876 where he exhibited three oils and ix water colors. His sister's brother-in-law, Donald G. Mitchell of New Haven, a writer better known by his pen name Ik Marvel, was chairman of the judges of the decorative arts. Here Tiffany became acquainted with the work of decorators from all over the world and was particularly impressed by the English and the Japanese. Also his father's partner in Tiffany and Company, the silversmith and collector of decorative arts, Edward C. Moore, encouraged the younger Tiffany in this direction. His first experiments were with glass and, together with John La Farge, he learned chemistry and worked in the Heidt glasshouse in Brooklyn, New York. Tif-fany and La Farge were never in partnership. They were working toward different goals. La Farge'S aim was to use glass in windows as a painter's medium. Tiffany's aim was to exploit the properties of the glass itself in the decoration of interiors. Both artists made their first ornamental windows of opalescent glass in 1876; both installed their fir t figure windows in 1878; and both worked for the same architect on the same job in 1880, always in a spirit of competition. La Farge may have been the first to use opalescent glass in a churcll window, but by 1880 Tif-fany had applied for the patents on the metallic iridescent glass that has been a sociated with him ever since.