The Antiquarian at Greenwich

Tiffany Furnaces Gilt-Bronze and Favrile Glass Jardinière

Louis C. Tiffany Furnaces, Inc., New York, circa 1920–1928
Stamped to the underside: LOUIS C. TIFFANY FURNACES INC 114
A rectangular jardinière of double-walled construction, the gilt-bronze armature holding two layers of glass on each of its four sides: an exterior panel of heavily textured iridescent Favrile glass in deep purple-blue, and an interior liner of flat opalescent slag glass in pale blue-grey. The exterior surface is raised in irregular ridges and broken planes, the iridescence shifting from cobalt to violet to a coppery sheen as the light moves across it. The bronze frame is mitered at the corners, finished with a flat top rim, and raised on four small block feet. Gilt wear at the rim edges shows the underlying bronze and is consistent with the construction.
The form falls within the Louis C. Tiffany Furnaces output of small bronze-and-Favrile decorative objects produced under A. Douglas Nash's direction between 1920 and the firm's dissolution in 1928. Production at the Corona, Queens works during these years emphasized the combination of metalwork and glass in domestic accessories — desk sets, boxes, jardinières, and powder containers — many marked with three-digit model numbers running into the 300s and 400s. Number 114 sits at the lower end of the range. A closely related model marked "Louis C. Tiffany Furnaces Inc. 109" is held by the Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia (accession 21036), as a cylindrical powder box of the same period and construction vocabulary.

Dimensions: H: 2 in. x W: 5 7/8 in.