Favrile Pottery Magnolia Vase

This rare Tiffany Favrile Pottery vase depicts the Magnolia, a spring-flowering tree whose sculptural blossoms were often a source of artistic inspiration for Louis Comfort Tiffany and craftspeople of Tiffany Studios, who were often instructed to translate the incorporate the Magnolia into designs for important leaded glass Tiffany Windows in addition to a line of Tiffany Lamps. This rare Tiffany Favrile Pottery vase is one of few examples of smaller decorative objects produced by Tiffany Studios depicting Magnolia blossoms.

The flat surface is decorated with a raised asymmetrical branch which rises up from the foot of the base, supporting Magnolia flowers in various stages of development from bud to blossom. The overall form the vase is cylindrical with a slightly flared foot; a slight swelling near the rim of the vase corresponds with the most fully open flowers. The composition and arrangement of the branches, buds, and blossoms bears some similarity to a surviving watercolor sketch by important Tiffany designer Agnes Fairchild Northrop, now in the collection of the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, FL (2007-017), in addition to an archival photograph of a blooming Magnolia tree from Northrop’s personal collection.

This Favrile Pottery Vase is glazed in a matte creamy glaze known among Tiffany collectors as the “Old Ivory” Glaze.

This model was initially developed around 1900 as an Enamel on Copper Vase by the Tiffany Girls working in the specialized Enamel and Pottery Department housed in Louis Comfort Tiffany’s larger factory complex in Corona, Queens. As Tiffany began to develop the Favrile Pottery line around 1904-05, the company’s designers adapted these designs into Favrile Pottery Vases.

Height: 12 inches (30. 5 cm)

Reference:
Martin Eidelberg, Tiffany Favrile Pottery and the Quest of Beauty, Lillian Nassau LLC, New York: 2007, pg. 94 fig. 233