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Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) is one of our most notable and innovative glassmakers. As well as the lamps that bear his
name, his legacy includes glassware and mosaics as well as stained glass windows and the eponymous lamps.
Jewellery firm Tiffany and Co are often thought to be responsible for Tiffany lamps. This isn't quite true but there is a
family connection; Louis' father Charles Lewis Tiffany co-founded the Broadway store. The young Tiffany therefore grew up
among some wonderful artefacts from around the world, an environment that no doubt instilled a sense of business as well as
the aesthetic.
The young Tiffany travelled the world, painting and meeting influential people. He saw ancient 'Iridescent' Roman glass which
inspired him to begin creating his own glass on returning home. He patented a number of glasses with such evocative names
as 'Lava glass'. What makes his glass so special is that instead of applying decoration, etching painted details and so on,
he worked coloured mottles and streaks deep into the glass as it was made. This gives his work its distinctive look.
Decorative glassware, wall-sized mosaics and church window commissions led to the large, colourful lamps. It has been suggested
that he began creating these to use up oddments from his windows and mosaics!
The firm Tiffany and Co. still thrives but unfortunately Louis' glass-making concern was wound up before he died. He looked
on as fashions moved away from fluid, sinuous organic lines to the brash, bold geometry of Art Deco. His work, once in demand
was consigned to attics or dumped! That's hard to believe now that original Tiffany lamps can fetch up to a million dollars
in salerooms!
My Reproductions
Only the best glass will do. Tiffany was driven by a desire to produce new and beautiful types of glass. I only use Uruboros
or Youghiogheny glass because I consider these types to provide the closest reproduction of his glass. Both of these ranges
vary widely and demand hand-selection.
The Tiffany designs contain several hundred pieces of glass, each hand cut and then carefully ground for a perfect fit with
its neighbour.
I'm very proud of the neatness and standard of my work and would be more than happy to have the opportunity to stand one of
my lamps beside any other.
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