Tiffany Studios

Nature Abstracted: A New Take on Cameo Glass

Cameo vases were part of the early output of the Stourbridge Glass Company, Louis Tiffany’s glasshouse in Corona, Long Island, appearing as early as 1896. This was to be expected, considering Tiffany’s personal knowledge of Émile Gallé’s work in France and that Arthur J. Nash, the glasshouse’s superintendent, was formerly the manager of the Webb glassworks in Stourbridge, England, a company famous for its cameo glass.

Tiffany and Nash, however, decided not to imitate the flat, static designs largely favored by Gallé, nor the rigid, classic motifs of Webb. In order to create a more fluid and naturalistic style, a new technique had to be developed that differed radically from the European method of forming a vase with multiple layers of glass and then using acid to cut away those layers. Tiffany’s glassworkers instead “padded” irregular sections of colored glass onto the exterior surface of the body and then a skilled craftsman used cutting and engraving tools to refine the design. It was a far more expensive and time-consuming process, but it gave Tiffany the look he desired.

This piece is likely the work of Fredolin Kreischmann, one of the 19^th century’s greatest engravers. The finely carved bright green pistils and the way that the edges of caramel and white flower petals gently overlap themselves at their tips clearly indicate the hand of a phenomenal craftsman. Born in 1845, Kreischmann was a native of Austria and moved to England at the age of 19, where he learned his craft. He received numerous prestigious awards throughout Europe, including the Legion of Honor. Tiffany hired him to work for the Stourbridge Glass Company, supposedly after seeing his work at the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Kreischmann’s reputation was such that his vases sold for as much as $1,500 to clients that included the Goulds, Vanderbilts and Havemeyers. Kreischmann unfortunately died suddenly on August 6, 1898. Shortly after his death, the company was bemoaning that his “work was almost unique, and whose recent death has created a vacancy which is found almost impossible to fill.”

- PD