Title: Louis C. Tiffany’s Glass Bronzes Lamps
Author: Robert Koch
Date: 1971
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0-517-505568
Length: 201 pages plus index
Illustrations: many black-and-white photographs
Quote: “A complete or definitive catalogue of...all the objects associated with Louis C. Tiffany...can never be compiled.”
Nevertheless, admirers of this artisan have collected many objects he made or designed. This book is a collector’s guide; more than half of it consists of photographs.
Tiffany began as a painter but became famous for designing glassware with an “artistic” quality. He’s been described as a “rebel in glass.” He is remembered not so much for his paintings as for designing household goods, especially glass but also metalware. His “studios” displayed these items in exhibition rooms that also recommended the “correct” plaster, paint, fabric, and even wallpaper to provide the most artistically effective backgrounds for his works.
Tiffany marketed his designs under the name Fabrile, meaning “handmade,” which was quickly changed to Favrile “to create a unique word.’ Actually they were mass-produced in a factory. The text of this book includes interviews with the laborers who copied Tiffany’s designs, including the chemical recipe for the dip used to give copper-plated bronze pieces a green patina.
Lamps are the most obvious use for “artistic” pieces of glass and metal. Tiffany designed several laps, candelabra, and electric light bulb holders. This book also shows his paintings, decorative wall tiles, glass folding screens, vases, dishes, desk sets (“Photograph Frame, Paper Weight, Calendar (Perpetual), Reading Glass, Pen Brush, Blotter Ends...”), jewelry, and miscellaneous products.
If you’re interested in antiques and décor (Lisiwayu is a serious hobbyist, GBP mildly interested), it’s worth having this book to check for real Tiffany products and authenticate reproductions. Tiffany became one of those brands that people went to the trouble of copying. For all practical purposes a good copy, or a good piece of work made in a similar style, is as good as something made in the Tiffany factory during LCT’s lifetime. People who really care which is which will, however, pay more for a Tiffany lamp now than Tiffany ever asked anyone to pay while living.
To buy it here, send $5 per book, $5 per package, and $1 per online payment to the appropriate address at the bottom of the screen. This is a coffee-table-sized book; one or two more books of similar size will fit into one $5 package.
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