Tiffany Studios

Collection of Maude B. Feld, New York

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

Susanne Langle, et. al., Louis C. Tiffany: Meisterwerke des amerikanischen Jugendstils, Hamburg, 1999, p. 194 (for a related example)

John Loring, Louis Comfort Tiffany at Tiffany & Co., New York, 2002, p. 97 (for related example)

Alice Cooney Freylinghuysen, Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall, New Haven, 2006, p. 128 (for a related example)

Tiffany enamels, just as the Favrile glass objects, were considered unique works of art intended for wealthy collectors. Tiffany & Company’s 1905 Blue Book listed small trays, bonbonnieres and fancy cabinet pieces at $10 to $50; large bonbon boxes were $50 to $250, and vases ranged between $25 and $300. Another marketing similarity with Favrile glass was that the firm was willing to offer a few clues concerning the technical innovations in creating their enamel pieces but absolutely refused to go into specifics: “The Tiffany studios have their secrets of detail that are jealously screened from vulgar inspection-that is a matter of business which the public has no right to probe. The hint given…is sufficient for the inquiring and the curious.”

Louis Tiffany had a sizeable collection of photographs to assist him and the artisans in his employ to develop a multitude of designs. He also believed that personal observation and inspiration was a vital tool as one observer noted: “He has wandered in many forests, looking at waving branches tipped with life, at roots and webs and insects.”2 The decoration on this box is a direct outcome of Tiffany’s woodland strolls and one of the major influences on his aesthetics.

He was fascinated with Japanese art and had a large collection of woodblocks and ceramics from that country. This covered box shows a direct link with those objects, featuring a glaze similar to raku pottery while depicting two large iridescent grasshoppers among floral branches, a common theme of Japanese woodblock artists such as Kesai Eisen (1790-1848) and Shunkei Mori (active 1800-1830), the works of both Tiffany was likely to have been familiar with.

Interestingly, the box offered here is nearly identical to one in the Grassi Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig, Germany. That museum obtained their example directly from Siegfried Bing’s exhibition at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle.