Tiffany Stained Glass

The world still sparkles with the beauty of Louis Comfort Tiffany's beautiful stained antique glass pieces today. Tiffany stained glass is found adorning many private homes around the globe. His pieces define a timeless elegance that people still covet. The workmanship, intense colors and intricate glass patterns shine in every piece of eloquent work that he and his staff ever made.

 

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This piece, in itself cannot hope to portray all that Louis Comfort Tiffany was or what his accomplishments bestowed upon the world. With his monumental efforts in taking what was once painted glass to new heights of what has became the art of stained glass as we know it. There is the hope that you will be intrigued enough to stop and truly enjoy the next piece of stained glass artistry that you see for the detail and the craftsmanship of the piece.

 

For the most part, the first glass windows depicting any form of color were made of clear glass with paint applied in the form of shapes, patterns or images, particularly of people. Eventually colored glass was manufactured using the addition of metallic salts with glass to create a variety of colors. Later, stained glass windows were made with small pieces of colored glass laid out in a pattern and then held together with strips of copper or lead, usually lead. This form was then bound together with what was usually a wood frame.

 

Many of these windows were used in private homes and several in churches of the day. Here and there through out the history of window decorations, different artists came close to creating forms of colored glass, but none ever succeeded as well as Louis Comfort Tiffany with his own unique style and brand of Tiffany stained glass.

 

In the late 1870s Oliver Kimberly, Frank Duffner, John La Farge and Tiffany would all work at a Brooklyn glasshouse where they all learned the craft of glass making. With their glass making knowledge they would all become competitors in the race to make glass into a new art form. John La Farge and Tiffany took their endeavors a step further by creating glass that had brilliant texture in addition to outstanding colors. With wealth, power and a great deal of ambition Louis Comfort Tiffany created several types of new Tiffany stained glass forms that would go on to be used as the standards in the industry for stained glass today.

 

Many people stand back and see the overall view of his detailed window panes and lamps, not realizing that each pieces of stained glass is a work of art of its own. Tiffany used colors as a way of defining his work, but ingeniously enough he incorporated texture into many of the types of glass he created. Each piece of Tiffany stained glass is an original, no matter how many times the technique as been recreated for hundreds of years.

 

There is a variety of glass forming techniques that are quite popular today and used in Tiffany stained glass creations. Some of the more prevalent glass forming techniques include translucent glass, streaky glass, wispy glass and textures. Each glass form creates its own imagery and the skilled artisan chooses the appropriate type of glass for each feature it wishes to enhance.

 

Today you can still purchase Tiffany stained glass creations in the form of stained glass panels, table lamps, floor lamps as well as a few other forms. His artistry is cherished around the world for its beauty, whether they are prized originals or impressive reproductions.