FEATURES ARCHIVE

Renowned for his richly colored lamps and vibrantly toned favrile glass, pottery, tapestries and furniture, this auction showcases exquisite jewelry created by the multi-talented Louis Comfort Tiffany. It was not until the passing of his father, founder Charles Tiffany, in 1902, that Louis Comfort began to manufacture his own jewelry designs and exhibited 27 pieces of jewelry in the Arts and Crafts style at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904, receiving international acclaim.

A True Pioneer
Louis Comfort Tiffany was a Renaissance man and a pioneer of American jewelry design. Known primarily for his “hand-wrought” style in the tradition of the Arts and Crafts movement, he continually challenged the American ideal of beauty with unusual color palettes, exoticism, naturalism and light.

In 1907, Tiffany & Co. purchased the enameling and jewelry department of Tiffany Furnaces and created a special “Art Jewelry” department in the store. It was at this point that jewelry production was completed in-house with the name “Tiffany & Co.” stamped on each piece.

The pieces in this auction demonstrate the variety of materials used by Tiffany to create his masterpieces, including opals and beautiful enameling, which can be seen as continuations of Tiffany’s pioneering work in glass, lamps and windows. The theme of light and color, not unlike the Impressionist painters that influenced him, was a common thread in every aspect of his oeuvre.