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This
beautiful book Louis Comfort Tiffany and
Laurelton Hall: An Artist's Country Estate
focuses on Laurelton Hall, Louis Comfort Tiffany’s
extraordinary country estate in Oyster Bay,
Long Island, New York. Beginning in 1902, Tiffany
(1848–1933) designed every aspect of the immense
home, which had eighty-four rooms and eight
levels, and extensive grounds into which the
house was carefully integrated. Tiffany’s residential
masterpiece was also a quasi-museum, for he
filled it with his own works—windows, glassware,
pottery, enamels, lamps, oil paintings, and
watercolors—as well as with objects from his
collections of Islamic, Asian, and Native American
art. Laurelton Hall burned down in 1957, but
about 10 years earlier most of its contents
had been removed and sold. Every aspect of the
estate is examined and re-created in this volume:
its terraced gardens with fountains and pools,
the many outbuildings, and Tiffany’s life there.
The interior decoration of Laurelton Hall, a
particular focus of the book, is represented
by both numerous period photographs and newly
commissioned color photography of surviving
artworks and salvaged architectural components
from the estate. For all who admire Tiffany
and his work, this book presents a unique portrait
of his remarkable home. Author Alice Cooney
Frelinghuysen is the Anthony W. and Lulu C.
Wang Curator of American Decorative Arts, The
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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