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Louis
Comfort Tiffany's hand blown art glass, made
from 1891 to 1928, embodies the artist's superior
workmanship and satisfied his dream to introduce
objects of both usefulness and beauty into the
average household. These lovely objects, which
he named "Favrile" and made in his New York
studio, display Tiffany's reverence for antique
glass and include the colored, gold iridescent,
blue iridescent, and opalescent forms featured
in this book Tiffany Favrile Art Glass.
At first, Tiffany used glass used by outside
firms, but this did not give him total satisfaction.
As his fascination with glass grew, he experimented
with lustering techniques, largely inspired
by the natural iridescence of ancient Roman
glass. He patented his first glass-lustering
technique in 1881. Favrile glass, the trademark
for Tiffany handmade glass, resulted from these
experiments and, with the exception of Tiffany
lamps, it is the ware for which he is best known.
Tiffany set up his own glasshouse at Corona,
Long Island and put a brilliant Englishman,
Arthur J. Nash, in charge. His previous companies
had all been concerned with interior decoration;
this one, Tiffany Furnaces, concentrated on
decorative blown glassware. In 1893 Tiffany
introduced his first hand blown-glass vases
and bowls, which he called "Favrile." The word
Favrile was taken by Tiffany from an old English
word for hand made. Tiffany Favrile glass quickly
gained international renown for its surface
iridescence and brilliant colors. Over 240 color
photographs of objects from many public and
private collections, a very interesting text,
and meticulously composed descriptions display
Tiffany's intriguing art glass together for
the first time in book form. Comments about
their rarity accompany the descriptions.
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