Tiffany Studios

Laurelton Hall, Louis Comfort Tiffany's Residence, Long Island, New York

Private Collection

Collection of Maude B. Feld, New York

Thence by descent to Alan W. Feld and Suzanne C. Feld, 1995

Armand Guerinet, L’Art Décoratif aux Salons de 1906, pl. 95-96 (for an archival photograph of the present coffer)

Gertrude Speenburgh, The Arts of the Tiffanys, Chicago, 1956, p. 76 (for an illustration of the coffer in situ in Laurelton Hall)

Alastair Duncan, The Paris Salons 1895-1914: Volume IV, Woodbrige, Suffolk, 1998, p. 450 (for an archival photograph of the present coffer in situ at the 1906 Paris Salon)

La Société des Artistes Français, Paris, 1906

Mother of pearl first came into vogue as a decorative element in the latter half of the 19th century. Also referred to as nacre, the substance is derived from the inner shell from some mollusks as well as being the critical material in the formation of pearls. It is a durable and strong substance and proved suitable for products ranging from architectural elements to buttons. These qualities, as well as its shimmering iridescence, had an obvious appeal to Louis Tiffany.

Tiffany’s first apparent use of the material was in the creation of his Chapel at the 1893 Columbian Exposition where he brilliantly combined it with glass mosaics in the altar. It was also employed in the door of the tabernacle that was additionally covered with “gold filigree and gems.” The company continued to use the substance as an architectural element in a number of important commissions, including the Public Library and the Henry Field Gallery in the Art Institute, both located in Chicago.

Louis Tiffany exhibited in the annual Paris Salons beginning in 1894 and used the event to showcase his finest creations. While generally met with critical acclaim, his display at the 1903 salon of the Societé des Artistes Français was viewed with derision: “There is absolutely nothing to observe among these pieces, heavy yet weak in form, and with vivid, yet inharmonious coloring. Furthermore, certain examples have not even the beauty of material.” Tiffany apparently did not exhibit in Paris in 1904 and his display in 1905 was barely mentioned.

He obviously intended that his exhibits in 1906 at the Societé des Artistes Français and the Société des Beaux-Arts’ L’Art Décoratif aux Salons would be neither dismissed nor criticized. Included in the display was the unbelievable Medusa brooch, currently in the collection of the Tiffany and Company archives, and the equally glorious Peacock necklace (in the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art). Another highlight, lost to time but recently rediscovered, was the magnificent coffer offered here.

This is the only known example in which Tiffany utilized mother of pearl in an objets de art and not an architectural element. It is incredibly complex and beautifully exemplifies another personal trait that was evident but rarely mentioned: “One other characteristic of Mr. Tiffany’s work as important to the total effect as his pictorial vision, technical difficulty. A thing that technically is hard to make becomes for the artist a desirable achievement.”2 The rectangular body, with tapered and rounded sides and raised on four gilt-bronze ball feet, is inset with columns of irregularly-shaped rectangular sections of golden-white mother of pearl alternating with smooth polished lozenges of the same material. The hinged cover, with a graceful gilt- bronze clasp having a small mother of pearl lock, is similarly decorated on the sides and its top is divided into four quadrants featuring entire shells having a natural gold and silver-blue iridescence.

The chest has been well known to Tiffany collectors and scholars for many years as it is pictured in several archival images. What comes as a total surprise, however, are the small insets of colorful Favrile glass enveloping the mother of pearl. These mosaic dots of blue, red, lavender, pink, cobalt and peach create an almost Pointillist effect while reinforcing Tiffany’s reputation of being a supreme colorist.

It was highly predictable that Louis Tiffany claimed ownership of the casket. Unlike many other important objects that he exhibited at multiple expositions and world’s fairs, it was apparently never shown again publicly. It does make a rare appearance in Gertrude Speenburgh’s The Arts of the Tiffanys (1956) where it is shown in a Laurelton Hall display case, but the author entirely ignores the box and instead focuses on the enameled pieces next to it. Just as the reemergence of the Medusa pendant two years ago, the totally unexpected and remarkable reappearance of the coffer again presents the opportunity for lovers of all things Tiffany to admire another “holy grail.”