Paul Doros’ Sotheby’s Catalogue Copy

Paul Doros of Montclair, NJ prepared the commentary for next week’s Sotheby’s auction catalogue of important Steuben and Tiffany items. On Monday, in Gazette #1984, we published the introductory catalogue material on the background of collectors’ Dr. Edward and Helen O’Connell; a brilliant background piece contrasting the bigger than life L.C. Tiffany and Frederick Carder. The rest of the material prepared by Paul Doros concerning the Tiffany pieces deserves reproduction, which here follows:
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Agate
Tiffany Furnaces was certainly not the first glasshouse to attempt to create objects that emulate the striations within stones. That distinction went to Friedrich Egermann, a Bohemian glassmaker, who invented Lithyalin glass in the 1830s. Many other European companies soon copied Egermann’s invention, as did Tiffany, and “Agate” vases were among his firm’s earliest production. The use of a swirled, opaque glass was a technique Tiffany’s glassworkers were already familiar with in the production of the sheet glass made for the company’s leaded glass windows and it was a natural transition to use the same glass for blown vessels.
Favrile “Agate” vases, with their panel-cut surfaces, perhaps come closer than any other glass objects ever made in replicating the actual appearance of sliced sections of striated and banded agate. Many of these pieces, including the present example from the McConnell collection, have ground and polished top rims, a feature not normally found in blown Favrile pieces. Their artistic and commercial success is indicated by the fact that Tiffany Furnaces continued to produce “Agate” vases until the mid-1920s.

Morning Glory Paperweight vase
This iconic design first appeared in late 1913, when Tiffany Furnaces decided to move away from creating paperweight vases with an interior iridescence. This new design philosophy permitted the flowers to be the primary focal point, and the transparency of the glass added a greater three-dimensional aspect to the internal decoration.
According to Leslie Nash, who was the son of Arthur Nash, the glasshouse’s superintendent, the company was experimenting with special formulas that created a glass that reacted and changed colors when struck with heat. Louis Tiffany, aware of these experiments, came to Tiffany Furnaces one Monday in October 1913 with a watercolor of morning glories he had recently painted. He showed the painting to Arthur Nash and insisted the glasshouse reproduce his painting in glass. After numerous failures, the gaffers finally succeeded by using five different types of reactive glass. Leslie Nash claimed the company spent $12,000 in materials and labor by the time the first successful “Morning Glory” paperweight vase was created. For this reason, they were priced at no less than $1000 each.
The model was first shown to the public at the 1914 Paris Salon and this lot, which is an outstanding example, was part of that display. This vase is somewhat unusual in that, while most “Morning Glory” vases have a inverted top rim, it has a slightly elongated neck, which creates a larger canvas to depict the exceptional foliage.

Tel-el-Amarna
The name for the banded decoration of intersecting zigzags, chains and other variations found on the applied necks and bases of many Favrile vases has changed over time. Once known as “Egyptian Collar,” the term “Tel-el-Amarna” has come to be accepted. However, recently discovered evidence indicates that “Byzantine” might be more accurate, as it appears Tiffany Studios intended “Tel-el-Amarna” to refer not to a decoration but to a particular shade of blue.
Tiffany Studios had a special exhibition at its Madison Avenue showrooms in March 1909. A review of the display in the New York Observer commented:
Mr. Tiffany of the Tiffany Studios has just succeeded in producing the turquoise tone in Favrile glass. Upon this he has been at work for a long time. That his success is a triumph will be appreciated when it is known that only once before in the world’s art history (the Egyptian Tel-el-Amarna period) has this delicate hue in glass been approached, and that the Tiffany glass in color and tone not only equals but surpasses the Egyptian. Mr. Tiffany was inspired to try for this difficult shade in glass by seeing some rare bits of Egyptian porcelains of the Tel-el-Amarna period while he was in Egypt two years ago.
Both the article in the Observer, and one appearing in New York Evening Post, mention that some of the vases in the exhibit were decorated with “bands of fine interlacing design,” and this is perhaps the basis for referring to all pieces with a similar decorative motif as “Tel-el-Amarna.” However, the fact that Arthur and Leslie Nash, in unpublished company notebooks, referred to Favrile shades with a border decoration of zigzags as “Byzantine” would seem to indicate that it, and not “Tel-el-Amarna, is a more historically accurate description for this category of vases.
Tel-el-Amarna vases, with their classic shapes, diversity of colors and wide range of decorative motifs have long been favored by collectors. The McConnells’ collection superbly exemplifies the finest characteristics of this style, ranging from a vivid “Mazarine” blue (lot XX) to a striking “Samaraian” red (lot XX), and the imaginatively modified decorations on the necks of lots XX and XX.

Lava
There is a legend that Louis Tiffany was inspired to create Lava vases after visiting Sicily and seeing Mt. Etna erupt. This story is most probably apocryphal. It is far more likely that, as Jane Shadel Spellman theorized, Tiffany was influenced by seventeenth-century Japanese raku-fired ceramic tea bowls. He was an avid collector of Japanese objects, and it is no surprise that some of the earliest pieces of blown Favrile glass were compared to “those freakish little things made nowadays
in Japan of a rough-textured, strong pottery…that strike one far more as grotesque than beautiful.”
Lava vases are intriguing as they were perhaps the only type of blown Favrile glass that required an extended period of development until the glassmakers were able to perfect the style and achieve the necessary technical skills to produce them. Unlike flowerforms and paperweight vases that took the glasshouse only a year or two to perfect, lavas evolved over a ten to twelve year period. Considering the length of time required to achieve the desired decorative effect, it is surprising that lava vases, featuring heavy irregular iridescent gold drippings over a textured dark navy ground, were produced by Tiffany Furnaces for only two brief periods: circa 1906-1907 and again around 1916
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The extraordinary example in the McConnell collectionis comparable to two vases in the Chrysler Museum (Norfolk, VA) made at approximately the same time and numbered 2584C and 6529C respectively. The decoration of this piece, however, is far better defined and is of a superior form. It clearly reflects the incredible mastery the glassworkers worked so tirelessly to achieve. Lava vases perhaps best typify the experimental decorative “accidents” Tiffany constantly urged his men to attempt. Vases such as this one convincingly support Louis Tiffany’s claim that his objects were unique and beautiful works of art, equal to any painting or sculpture.

Peacock Decorated

The peacock was one of Louis Tiffany’s favorite decorative motifs, and he incorporated it into the full range of his work, from leaded glass windows to jewelry. He was obviously intrigued by the vivid iridescent blue, purple and green sheen of the bird’s feathers. The peacock was also particularly well suited to church decorations. It was a symbol of immortality to the ancient Romans, as they believed its flesh did not decay after death. The early Christians readily adapted this symbolism. To them, the peacock’s shedding of its feathers each year and growing newer, more resplendent plumage represented the resurrection of Christ.
Peacock-decorated Favrile vases were first displayed at the company’s Fourth Avenue showrooms in the early spring of 1897, and the timing was entirely due to marketing considerations. Several New York City newspapers, probably given the information by Tiffany himself, reminded the public that the peacock was symbolic of Christ’s resurrection, and these vases would make an ideal gift for Easter.
This particular vase comes from that initial stage of production and its pockmarked Cypriote exterior surface makes it highly unusual.

Paperweight vases
Tiffany Furnaces never made paperweights in the traditional sense. However, around 1900, they discovered a technique to encase a decoration between two layers of clear glass. The design was frequently enhanced by the use of glass millefiori-from the Italian mille (thousand) and fiori (flowers)-and a gold, or orange-gold, iridescence on the vase’s interior surface. The glasshouse’s initial attempts to produce paperweight vases featured basic shapes, simple designs and an occasional production flaw. Louis Tiffany, however, quickly realized that this technique would be the perfect medium to express his love of nature, particularly flowers. The gaffers’ skills and inventiveness improved rapidly, and paperweight vases are among some of the glassworks’ most artistic creations.
The Poppy paperweight vase (lot ?) exemplifies the heights of the gaffer’s abilities. The graceful baluster-shaped body, encasing vivid millefiori-centered flowers amongst stylized foliage, clearly demonstrate the glassmaker’s care in producing a piece intended for one of the Paris Salon exhibitions. The Nasturtium vase (lot XX) is of an unusual shape and thickness that creates a heightened sense of fluidity to the internal decoration.

Tesserae
Tesserae vases, named after the small, flat pieces of glass used to make mosaics, are a type of paperweight vase made relatively late in Tiffany Furnaces’ history. The internal decorations for paperweight vases were generally created by laying out a design, comprised of small sections of glass, on a marver. The gaffer would then roll the hot glass on his blowpipe over this, expand the vase, and then cover the piece with a layer of clear glass. Tesserae vases were made very differently. Thin millefiori slices, resting on small pins, were placed side by side within a mold. The gaffer would then blow a bubble of clear glass inside the mold so the millefiori would be embedded on, and flush with, the exterior. The mold was then opened, the bubble was slightly expanded and shaped and, once again, the piece would be covered with a layer of clear glass. Tesserae vases are exceptionally rare because of the time-consuming nature of their production.