International studio (30.1906/1907(1907))

Louis C. Tiff any


DRAGON-FLY HAIRPIN BY LOUIS C.
AND GRAPE NECKLACE TIFFANY
He is the discoverer of a new formula for making
decorative glass, to which has been given the name
Tiffany Favrile Glass. In 1879 he established and
became president and art director of the Tiffany
Glass and Decorating Company, now widely
known as the “Tiffany Studios.’’ Views of the
Favrile Glass windows have lately been shown in
this magazine, as have a few specimens of the pot-
tery, part of the output of the Tiffany Furnaces,
which he established at Corona, Long Island.
Mr. Tiffany, though fewer people may have re-
alized the fact, is also an architect, as the Tiffany
mansion on Madison Avenue, New York, his new
home at Cold Springs Harbour and the decora-
tive rearrangement of many homes attest.
Starting in any one of several directions in
American art affairs, you come upon the work of
this inventive, resourceful artist and man of affairs.
And in due time you come round the circle to the
held in which the name was first made a cachet,
that of jewellery. Mr. Tiffany is second vice-presi-
dent and trustee of the New York jewellery house
founded by his father, Charles L. Tiffany. He is
also, of course, goldsmith, enameller, worker in gems.
And here again his dextrous enterprise and his
imagination have taken him beyond the practise of
the craft and into remarkable innovations.
In the pieces of jewellery here reproduced, for
example, an effort has been made to represent more
perfectly than has hitherto been done the beautiful

features of such natural objects as flowers, insects,
etc., and at the same time to emphasize those forms
and parts which typify and suggest the essential
beauty of the object, while eliminating the non-
essential and those not adapted to reproduction in
jewellery.
The materials used in the construction embrace
a great variety of metals, gems and enamels, use
being made of each according to the nature of the
effort to be represented.
The solanum pendants represent a bunch of the
fruit of the solanum dulcamaia, a relative of the
deadly nightshade. The berries are carved out of
onyx and repeat accurately the beautiful form of
the original, while the translucent quality of the
onyx strongly suggests the quality of the berry. In
this piece are also some of the flowers of the plant
reproduced in enamel.
The spirea hair ornament is made entirely of gold,
silver and enamel, and represents a bunch of the
flowers in their natural positions of growth. The
petals are enameled silver, and the stamens are gold
wires, each stamen being terminated by a minute
gold ball.
The dragonfly hair ornament is a remarkable
piece on account of its strikingly realistic appear-
ance, although the lifelike quality has been ob-
tained without any sacrifice of artistic qualities, and,
therefore, does not detract from its value as an
ornament. The head and body are carved out of
opal and opalines and on the back it is studded with
demantoids. The wings are remarkable pieces of
filigree work of the most delicate kind, too delicate,
in fact, for any of the usual jewellery metals and,
therefore, made of a special alloy of iridium and
platinum having great strength.
A necklace is illustrated which represents a
series of bunches of ornamental grapes. The
grapes are opalines half hidden by leaves of
enamelled gold.
The mountain ash pine is a bunch of the fruit
made of coral carved.
The blackberry hair ornament in which the ber-
ries are masses of carved and closely set garnets, so
closely set that the settings are quite invisible, is
another remarkably artistic and at the same time
lifelike reproduction. The blackberry leaves are of
enamelled filigree work.
The peacock necklace has for its central pendant
a piece of mosaic of small pieces of carved opals,
cemented with gold. The reverse of the necklace
shows a different scheme of colour and style of orna-
ment from the front, the back being of chased gold
and enamel and the front of precious stones.

xxxiv