Loading...

Louis Comfort Tiffany

Louis Comfort Tiffany was the Son of Charles Lewis Tiffany, Founder of American Jeweler Tiffany & Company. He Served as the Design Director for Tiffany from 1902-1918.
Louis Comfort Tiffany was the Son of Charles Lewis Tiffany, Founder of American Jeweler Tiffany & Company. He Served as the Design Director for Tiffany from 1902-1918.

Louis Comfort Tiffany began his career as a watercolorist. He achieved enough success to exhibit at the American Water Color Society and the National Academy in the 1870s and at Paris’s Universal Exposition in 1878.1 In 1879, he founded an interior design company, winning commissions to redecorate the homes of Mark Twain and Cornelius Vanderbilt, as well as the White House.2

Around this time, Tiffany also began experimenting with pottery and glass making. His work in these mediums brought him fame. In 1885, he opened the Tiffany Glass Company. Over the next two decades, Tiffany created objets d’art, lamps, and pottery featuring Favrile glass, a type of iridescent glass that he patented in 1894, and stained glass. His pieces won him wide acclaim, including a Grand Prize at Paris’s International Exhibition in 1900.

As of 1902, when he began to work at Tiffany’s jewelry design department, he had not yet tried his hand at jewelry.3 When he began to create, his style was clear. LCT’s jewelry featured designs inspired by nature (e.g., dragonflies, vines, flowers), mythology (e.g., Medusa), and ancient history. Constructed in yellow gold, his pieces were often embellished with enamel and set with semi-precious gemstones like moonstone, tourmaline, and garnet. The jewels were well received and remain excellent examples of the Art Nouveau style. Julia Munson, a designer in the Arts and Crafts movement, was often one of his key collaborators.

Black Opal, Sapphire, Garnet Brooch by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Photo Courtesy of Sotheby's.
Black Opal, Sapphire, Garnet Brooch by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Photo Courtesy of Sotheby's.
Enamel and Opal Brooch by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Signed Tiffany & Co., c.1905. Photo Courtesy of Sotheby's.
Enamel and Opal Brooch by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Signed Tiffany & Co., c.1905. Photo Courtesy of Sotheby's.
Egyptian Revival Necklace, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Tiffany & Co., c.1913. Photo Courtesy of Sotheby's.
Egyptian Revival Necklace, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Tiffany & Co., c.1913. Photo Courtesy of Sotheby's.

Maker's Marks & Timeline

Tiffany, Louis Comfort Maker’s Mark
Tiffany, Louis Comfort Maker’s Mark
Full Screen

Tiffany, Louis Comfort

Country

City

New York NY

Categories: , Tags: , ,
Description

Specialties

  • Son of Charles Louis Tiffany.

1878

  • Louis C. Tiffany & Associated Artists.

1881

  • Patented opalescent window glass.

1885

  • Opened the Tiffany Glass Company.

1894

  • Patented Favrile Glass.

1900

  • Grand Prize at the International Exhibition, Paris.

c.1902

  • Went to work in the design department at Tiffany & Co.
  • First Director of Design for Tiffany & Co.

Motifs

  • Dragonflies
  • Flowers
  • Vines
  • Mythology

Mediums

  • Enamel
  • Gemstones

1933

  • Death of Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Sources

  • Loring, John. Tiffany Jewels. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999, 168-179.
  • Loring, John. Louis Comfort Tiffany at Tiffany and Company. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2002.
  • Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney. “Nature Studies: Louis Comfort Tiffany.” In Bejewelled by Tiffany: 1837-1987, ed. Clare Phillips, 64-81. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
  • Zapata, Janet. “More About Paudling Farnham, Tiffany’s Designer Extraordinaire.” Antiques, March 1, 1999.
Further Resources

External Link

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tiff/hd_tiff.htm

Notes

  1. John Loring, Louis Comfort Tiffany at Tiffany and Company. 240.
  2. John Loring, Tiffany Jewels, 170.
  3. There is apparently a disagreement about when, exactly, Louis Comfort Tiffany became design director at Tiffany. Loring dates the position to 1902 when Charles Lewis Tiffany died and his son inherited the firm. However, other sources suggest that he became director in 1908 when Paulding Farnham resigned from the position because of artistic conflicts with LCT. (see Zapata)
Close Menu
×