Tiffany Studios

Collection of Maude B. Feld, New York

Thence by descent to Alan W. Feld and Suzanne C. Feld, 1995

Susanne Langle, et. al., Louis C. Tiffany: Meisterwerke des amerikanischen Jugendstils, Hamburg, 1999, p. 194 (for a related example)

John Loring, Louis Comfort Tiffany at Tiffany & Co., New York, 2002, p. 97 (for related example)

Alice Cooney Freylinghuysen, Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall, New Haven, 2006, p. 128 (for a related example)

Tiffany enamels, just as the Favrile glass objects, were considered unique works of art intended for wealthy collectors. Tiffany & Company’s 1905 Blue Book listed small trays, bonbonnieres and fancy cabinet pieces at $10 to $50; large bonbon boxes were $50 to $250, and vases ranged between $25 and $300. Another marketing similarity with Favrile glass was that the firm was willing to offer a few clues concerning the technical innovations in creating their enamel pieces but absolutely refused to go into specifics: “The Tiffany studios have their secrets of detail that are jealously screened from vulgar inspection-that is a matter of business which the public has no right to probe. The hint given…is sufficient for the inquiring and the curious.”

Louis Tiffany had a sizeable collection of photographs to assist him and the artisans in his employ to develop a multitude of designs. He also believed that personal observation and inspiration was a vital tool as one observer noted: “He has wandered in many forests, looking at waving branches tipped with life, at roots and webs and insects.”2 The decoration on this box is a direct outcome of Tiffany’s woodland strolls and one of the major influences on his aesthetics.

He was fascinated with Japanese art and had a large collection of woodblocks and ceramics from that country. This covered box shows a direct link with those objects, featuring a glaze similar to raku pottery while depicting two large iridescent grasshoppers among floral branches, a common theme of Japanese woodblock artists such as Kesai Eisen (1790-1848) and Shunkei Mori (active 1800-1830), the works of both Tiffany was likely to have been familiar with.

Interestingly, the box offered here is nearly identical to one in the Grassi Museum of Replica Handbags s in Leipzig, Germany. That museum obtained their example directly from Siegfried Bing’s exhibition at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle.