EVENT: Upcoming lecture will explore Tiffany’s work beyond windows

Favrile glass pieces from Tiffany’s studios. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Louis Comfort Tiffany is perhaps best known for his stained glass windows and lamps, but his blown Favrile glass creations deserve equal attention. The Favrile technique, which involves embedding dyes directly into molten glass instead of only treating the surface, results in an iridescent finish and vivid, concentrated swirls of color. Tiffany pioneered the Favrile process, and the works he produced using the technique will be highlighted in an upcoming talk on Tiffany hosted by the New York Metropolitan Glass Club on May 1, 2012. Noted Tiffany expert and collector Paul Doros will conclude his two-part lecture series on the life and work of the artist, beginning with a survey of Tiffany’s career and then focusing specifically on the Favrile glass pieces that Tiffany created in his studios in Corona, Queens. Doros is the author of The Tiffany Collection of the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, and he is currently working on a book focusing on blown Favrile glass. Doros also hosts the Tiffany Studios Resource Center website.

The interior of St. Michael’s Church on Manhattan’s upper west side was designed and installed by Tiffany. Photo courtesy St. Michael’s Church.

Fittingly, the talk will take place at St. Michael’s Church in Manhattan, whose interior was designed and built by Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company between 1895 and 1920. Tiffany, with the assistance with four other artists from his studio, installed seven brightly colored stained glass windows behind the altar, each of which measures five feet wide and twenty-two feet tall. “Tiffany used as many as four layers of brilliant jewel toned glass to achieve the effects of sky, clouds and drapery,” according to an historical account from the church. These windows, along with other stained glass windows and embellishments throughout the main hall, represent “one of the largest installations of Tiffany glass and decorations to remain in its original setting.”

The lecture will begin at 7 PM, following a wine and cheese reception at 6:30. The fee for non-members is $10. For more information about the New York Metropolitan Glass Club’s monthly meetings at St. Michael’s Church, email nyglassclub@gmail.com.

—Lindsay Lowe