Tiffany Studios

Diamond Cut to Perfection: An Early Cameo Bowl and Underplate

This bowl and its matching underplate represent another aspect of Tiffany’s marketing approach. He wanted his objects to have broad appeal, but the glasshouse was creating pieces with highly irregular shapes, strange decorations and bold colors, combinations unique in the history of glassmaking. Much of the American public also had problems accepting glassware that was, in many instances, completely opaque. Finally, Tiffany was in competition with the flood of brilliant cut glass that was dominating the late 19^th century American marketplace.

The set offered here might have been an effort to appeal to those cut glass customers. Both feature three excellently crafted cameo and intaglio carved flowers created with the padding technique Tiffany was famous for. However, the flowers are on thick transparent blanks finely cut in a diamond pattern, a design employed by many American cut glass manufacturers of the period. Tiffany’s attempt to encroach on the popularity of brilliant cut glass was apparently unsuccessful as no other examples with similar cutting are known to exist.

- PD