Studio: international art (14.1898)

Tiffany Glass

FAVRILE GLASS VASE DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY LOUIS C. TIFFANY

chief with the great creative artist
who has set his mark on his time.
But it is so hard to do it justice
in black and white and mere
words. And much of what I have
said bears on it. The spirit of
dauntless curiosity, of inspired
versatility which has been referred
to, the unflagging enthusiasm for
the secrets of colour, all go to
explain it, all have helped to pro-
duce it. The colour of the blown
glass is generally spoken most of;
the forms deserve equal attention,
all the more that they have come
unsought. Instances of contor-
tion or intricacy are rare; the
shapes are often capricious but
with all the sweet waywardness of
this exquisite material; they are
almost invariably simpler, less
slight, less tortured, and more
classical in the deepest sense,
than the blown glass of Europe.
They may recall the shapes of
Persia, Japan, Greece, because
they have been born in the same
way.

Their use for lamps has been
touched upon. For electric lights

windows requires separate
treatment and full illus-
tration to give some
notion of the range of
work of the Tiffany es-
tablishment. The “ deep-
sea” window, which is
here reproduced, is a
great favourite of mine,
and indeed of all Euro-
pean critics who see it,
for its subdued depth of
colour and poetic sug-
gestiveness. It is, of
course, a personal work
of Mr. Tiffany’s.

It may seem that I
have given myself but
little space to speak of
the Favrile blown glass,
in which Mr. Tiffany
merges the decorative