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Louis Comfort Tiffany - A Timeline
Louis Comfort Tiffany was
the son of the founder, Charles Lewis Tiffany, of New York
jewellers, Tiffany and Co. The company was originally called
Tiffany and Young and was only renamed in 1853.
1848 Louis
Comfort Tiffany was born in New York City.
1865-1870
Tiffany leaves school and makes three trips abroad, travelling
to Europe and North Africa, where he was exposed to new
different cultural and artistic influences.
1878
He decorates his first home and produces his first stained
glass window.
1879
Tiffany collaborates with Thomas Edison, who invented the
lightbulb in the previous year, on designing the lighting
for the Lyceum Theater in New York. The lightbulb provided
the inspiration for the development of his famous lamps
as their beauty could be appreciated better when illuminated
by electric lightbulbs.
1880
Partnerships formed with Lockwood de Forest, furniture and
woodwork specialist, and Candace Wheeler, textile designer
and embroidery specialist, under the name Associated Artists.
The partnership produced all kinds of decorative items like
lights, flooring, windows and furniture. They decorated
many famous houses and buildings including the Hartford
home of Mark Twain and the Veterans' Room of the Regiment
Armoury in New York.
1890 Tiffany
collaborates with artist Samuel Colman on decorating the
5th Avenue home of Louisine and Henry Osborne bringing together
a wide range of disparate objects and styles to outstanding
effect.
1893 He
registers Favrile as the trademark for his irridescent glass.
Tiffany exhibited at
the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. His displays
included a complete chapel and leaded glass windows.
He builds large workshops and furnaces in Corona, Queens,
New York.
1895 Tiffany
exhibits at the opening exhibition of Siegfried Bing's L'Art
Nouveau Gallery in Paris where work by Lalique
is also on display.
1899 He exhibits at the Grafton Gallery
in London and at La Société des Artists Français.
1900 He
again exhibits a at La Société des Artists
Français and the Exposition Universelle in Paris,
where he showed around 100 pieces of blown Favrile glass,
leaded glass windows and a leaded glass screen.
1902 Tiffany
exhibits at the Prima Exposizione d'Arte Decorativa Moderna
in Turin, Italy. Now called Tiffany Studios, the company
opened and American Section there.
He becomes the artistic directory of Tiffany & Co and
establishes a department for art jewellery.
1904 Pottery,
copper enamels and jewellery is exhibited at the Louisiana
Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. The pottery was based
on similar designs done in enamel and many were based on
plants. The shape of leaf or other part of the plant actually
being used as the form of the pottery or enamel, eg a leaf
shaped plate. This was greatly influenced by the work of
European Art Nouveau designers, particularly Danish potters
Bing and Grøndahl, that he had seen in Paris.
1907 Tiffany
moves his jewellery studio to Tiffany & Co's head office.
His jewellery designs become more stylised.
1918 Tiffany
establishes a foundation to provide help for talented young
artists.
1919 Tiffany
retires from his company remains President. He continues
with his paintings.
1925 Tiffany
puts his own collection of enamelled decorative objects
on exhibition at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York.
1933
Louis C Tiffany dies.
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