Tiffany Studios

A Study in Ingenuity

Many, if not the majority, of Tiffany glass collectors are satisfied with a single representative piece of a certain style or motif. That was not my parents’ attitude. Familiar with the study galleries the Corning Museum of Glass featured in the 1970s and 1980s and the encyclopedic collection of the Chrysler Museum of Art, Jay and Micki wanted their own collection to be educational as well as comprehensive. The following three lots best exemplify that attitude. The vase numbered o8866 (lot 339) was purchased from Minna Rosenblatt in 1984; the example marked o8867 (lot 337) was obtained at Sotheby’s the following year; and they bought the third piece (lot 338) from Skinner’s in 1991. All three, of similar color, design and shape, were likely made on the same day by the same gaffer. Each, however, is strikingly different in terms of iridescence, the type of stylized flower depicted and one even is enhanced with engraving. The three were always displayed together in the house and my father loved to discuss how they so beautifully demonstrated the brilliant artistic talents and ingenuity of Tiffany’s glassworkers.

- PD