Tiffany Studios

Inspired to Innovate –

Tiffany’s Early Blown Favrile Glass

Louis C. Tiffany’s glasshouse in Corona, New York was established in 1893, situated in a renovated laundry building and named the Stourbridge Glass Company out of deference to Arthur J. Nash, its superintendent. The early period of production was devoted largely to experimentation with the glass itself, in learning its properties and artistic potential. This involved Nash testing innumerable glass recipes and then the glassworkers determining how the various mixtures reacted to being blown, decorated and annealed. 

Complex pieces utilized variegated glass, frequently opaque, that closely resembled the opalescent sheet glass the company manufactured for its leaded glass windows. Different complementary-colored molten glasses were combined and swirled together, forming dramatic effects. Many, such as lot 203, were briefly exposed to hydrofluoric acid fumes after being annealed to give them a gentle matte finish. This particular piece, of classic form, was further enhanced by the extremely unusual addition of bright brass filings combed onto the exterior surface.

Dr. Parker C. McIlhiney, the company’s chief chemist, was finally able to develop a means of adding an iridescence to glass in 1895. Tiffany, however, was fascinated with the effect and lot 204 is indicative of the glasshouse’s early attempts to emulate an iridescent luster prior to McIlhiney’s development. One method was to add silver to the glass mixture and, when the glass vase was reheated in the glory hole, silver crystals would rise to just below the surface, resulting in a highly reflective and lustrous product. This technique had its limitations, the major one being that it could only be used with transparent glass. It clearly demonstrates, however, the company’s innovative and experimental mindset. 

- PD