AFA Autumn 2019

Antiques & Fine Art 65 2019 Candace Wheeler, and Lockwood de Forest, Louis C. Tiffany & Associated Artists furnished and decorated the grand homes of many notable clients, including Mark Twain, whose mansion in Hartford, Connecticut, is one of the few extant Tiffany interiors. The firm’s Aesthetic Movement designs featured abundant ornamentation, with patterns and materials inspired and derived from the Middle and Far East. INNOVATIONS IN GLASS Tiffany’s fascination with glass spurred him to experiment with glass formulas and techniques. He patented a formula for opalescent window glass in 1881, and by early 1893 had opened his own glasshouse in Corona, Queens. Tiffany hired the skilled English glassmaker Arthur J. Nash to oversee the furnaces, soon producing blown pieces that Tiffany called “favrile,” derived from fabrilis , Latin for “handmade.” An example of favrile is the paperweight vase given to the Lyman Allyn by Annie and Alfred Mitchell’s daughter Alfreda (Fig. 4). Fig. 1: Coffee and tea service, ca. 1890, Tiffany & Company. New York. Sterling silver. Dimensions vary. Lyman Allyn Art Museum, Virginia Palmer Bequest (1937.4.40). Fig. 2: Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933) North African Town, ca. 1871 Casein on hand-woven canvas 26¼ x 20¼ inches Museum purchase, Lyman Allyn Art Museum (2018.4)