Founded in 1979, a company named Dale Tiffany standardized the production of stained glass, creating a market for affordable, quality Tiffany reproductions. Today, there are many manufacturers of Tiffany glass products with workmanship and adherence to design varying greatly. Dale Tiffany and Meyda Tiffany are the recognized producers of quality Tiffany reproductions with the rights and molds for Louis Comfort Tiffany’s patterns, methods and glass products. There are also stained glass product lines utilizing more contemporary designs, but true Tiffany must conform to the original Louis Comfort Tiffany specifications and designs.
Tiffany glass products are prepared using a copper foil method, as opposed to the original “lead came” system typically used in the grand European stain glass windows. With either method, the pattern is drawn and labeled as to type and color of the glass, and the glass is cut and ground to the correct size. With the copper foil method, the edges are then cleaned and wrapped with a copper foil (adhesive on one side). The glass pieces are blocked into place, fluxed and soldered. Various patinas can be used as a finish on the solder. Three-dimensional work, such as lamp shades, requires the copper foil method.
Originator, Louis Comfort Tiffany, discovered the rich tones in medieval Roman and Syrian glass on a trip to Europe in 1865 and vowed to improve contemporary glass manufacture. An interior designer, Tiffany had become disillusioned by the types of glass available for décor and opened his own studio and glass factory. He became infatuated with stain glass and developed a number of glass products for his work that transmitted texture and rich color.
Utilizing leftover glass from his stain glass windows, Louis began designing patterns for lampshades and produced his first lamps. His original lamps are considered to be among the best of American contributions to Europe’s Art Nouveau movement in the late 1800s. The first Tiffany lamp was created in 1899 with a bronze base. The record price at a public sale for an original Louis Tiffany lamp exceeds $8 million.
Tiffany stain glass designs are used in table and floor lamps, chandeliers, flush and semi-flush ceiling fixtures, ceiling pendants, wall sconces, furniture, fire place screens and, of course, windows.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a gallery devoted to the work of Louis C. Tiffany, regarded as one of the most versatile and talented American artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The collection includes design drawings from his studios.
Some of the glass products developed by Louis Comfort Tiffany are:
Drapery glass is produced from heavily folded glass, adding a third dimension to fabric folds.
Favrile glass (French for handcrafted) has an iridescence resulting in a surface
shimmer, deep or brilliant colors and somewhat of an opacity. It is achieved by mixing different colors of glass while hot.
Fracture glass results from affixing irregular, thin glass shapes to produce a textured surface.
Opalescent glass, as Tiffany called it, results from the fusion of more than one color of glass during manufacture and is the basis for a number of the Tiffany glass products.
Ring mottle glass has blotches or streaks of different colors or shades produced by localized heat-treatment.
Ripple glass is a textured product with waves, used for water and other effects and resulting from the application of a roller turning faster than the forward movement on molten glass.
Streamer glass indicates a pattern of hand-stretched glass cords pressed into the molten surface of a glass sheet to represent tree branches and the like.
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