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Green-and-white tulip-shaped glass vase

This glass vase has a round, domed base that is iridescent gold in the middle and white around the edges. The base attaches to a tall, thin, medium-green “stem.” The stem is translucent with a striated pattern. It has a small area in the center that is thicker than the top and bottom. The stem widens into the vaguely tulip-shaped, narrow-mouthed, hollow upper section of the vase. The top of this area is creamy white and opaque, growing more translucent near the middle. The striations of the stem continue in leaf-like points up the side of the top portion of the vase.

Gallery Text

Tiffany’s naturalistic art glass catered to elite Americans’ taste for singular, handmade objects. With their asymmetrical, organic forms and unevenly distributed colors, these works stand in stark contrast to the more uniform, mass-produced goods that proliferated at the turn of the nineteenth century. A skillful marketer, Tiffany branded his glass “favrile,” a loose adaption of the Old English word “fabrille” or “hand wrought.”

Tiffany employed teams of skilled artisans at his glassworks in Corona, New York, to transform his sketched designs into three-dimensional objects. Producing the multicolored surfaces of these vases required manual dexterity and a working knowledge of chemistry. The artisans incorporated colored canes, or rods, into the glass when it was still hot and malleable and then treated the glass with metal oxides to give each form a striking iridescent finish.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
BR62.18
People
Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company, American (1892-1902)
Title
Favrile Vase
Other Titles
Former Title: Floriform Vase
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
vessel
Date
19th century
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/222896

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2100, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, Centuries of Tradition, Changing Times: Art for an Uncertain Age
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Glass with applied colors
Dimensions
34.9 x 12 cm (13 3/4 x 4 3/4 in.)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of H. Wade White
Accession Year
1962
Object Number
BR62.18
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 2100 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu