Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933)

Lot 148 - Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933)
American master glassmaker
Glass vase Favrile signed L.C Tiffany
Early 20th century.
Dimensions: H: 46; L: 27 cm
Born in New York City, Louis is the son of Harriet Olivia Avery Young and Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of a successful jewelry company, Tiffany & Co. He studied first at Widener University in West Chester, Pennsylvania, then in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and at the American Academy of Design in New York City in 1866. At the age of 24, he became interested in working with glass. Between 1875 and 1878, he worked for several glassworks, and in 1885, he founded his own glassworking company.
Glass is his favourite field, in all its forms: stained glass, vases, lamps, jewellery, various objects. He introduced several innovations in the glassmaking technique, some of which were patented: "draped glass" where the molten paste is folded back on itself, use of several superimposed layers, inclusion of pieces of coloured glass5 . His most remarkable contribution is the creation of his "Favrile glass" which includes metallic salts. Favrile glass is a type of iridescent art glass developed by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The name is derived from the Latin fabrilis, which means "hand-made". He patented the process in 1894 and first produced the glass for manufacture in 1896 in Queens, New York.