Agate Vase

c. 1909

Agate Vase, c. 1909. Tiffany Studios (American, New York, 1902–1932). Favrile glass; overall: 22.3 x 11 cm (8 3/4 x 4 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Charles Maurer 2018.291 This vase is made of Louis Comfort Tiffany's signature Favrile glass. Early on when Tiffany began collaborating with glass artists on new types of production, his aesthetic ambitions were realized in the development of Favrile glass, deliberately named to sound French, expensive, and “handmade.” Largely through Tiffany's marketing ability, Favrile glass became America’s greatest contribution to the Art Nouveau style. His works were exhibited at international expositions; galleries in major European cities, where his creations were bought by many museums; and in his store in Manhattan, known as the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Co., later Tiffany Studios. Along with the many shapes and sizes of his decorative vases, Tiffany used Favrile glass in mosaic panels, stained glass windows, and his artistic line of table and floor lamps. The glass in this vase is multicolored and cut to resemble agate stone vases, popular in Germany and Vienna in the early 1800s.