Louis Comfort Tiffany
(1848-1933)

Louis Comfort Tiffany was one of the greatest of the American artists making glass, pottery, jewelry, enamel on copper, and other salable works of art.

He was born in New York City and studied art in New York and Paris. For a time he remained in Europe, painting oils and watercolors. Among his most outstanding paintings is Snake Charmer at Tangiers (1915?, Metropolitan Museum, New York City). Returning to New York he turned his attention to media other than paints.

The Tiffany metal furnaces of Corona, NY, were started in 1898 and experiments in making pottery began the same year. Tiffany added shades to wide-mouthed ceramic vases purchased from Grueby and other leading art potteries. He continued to purchased ceramics even after Tiffany studios established its own ceramic division in 1905. That same year his firm began to make lamp bases for his Favrile glass shades. The bases were deep ivory-shaded brown. Later bases were green, and a few white or coated with bronze. Many had matte glazes. All were marked "LCT" on the bottom. The pottery bases were only a limited success, and most of the lamp bases made by Tiffany were of enameled metal rather than pottery.

He established a glassmaking factory and experimented with stained glass for decorative-art objects. He invented a process for making an opalescent glass, known as Tiffany favrile glass, which he used to fashion colorful windows, vases, lamps, and other decorative-art objects. Much prized by collectors today, the pieces are characterized by the curved and delicate lines of the art nouveau style.