Cypriote Vase

Around the turn of the 20th century, Louis Comfort Tiffany and the highly specialized team of glass chemists and artisans in his employ developed “Cypriote” Favrile Glass, a rare and experimental type of blown glass.

Cypriote glass was intended to replicate the pitted surfaces of the ancient Roman glassware unearthed in the mid-19th century by archaeologist Luigi Palma di Cesnola on the island of Cyprus. The chemical reactions between minerals in the soil and the bottles and vases which had been buried for centuries caused in unusual textures, often with vibrant colors and shimmering iridescence. In the mid-1870s Cesnola’s collection was exhibited at the newly established Metropolitan Museum of Art where examples were likely seen by Louis Comfort Tiffany, who in the mid-1890s tasked chemists Dr. Parker McIlhenny and Arthur Nash with recreating the unusual effects using modern glassblowing techniques.

The surface of this golden yellow Cypriote Vase is characterized by contrasting areas of shimmering iridescence and rough pitted surface texture, all in rich rainbow hues. The form of this vase may also have been inspired by ancient glass; the piriform body bears some resemblance to a group of small perfume bottles and flasks from the 2nd-3rd centuries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Cesnola Collection.

This rare example of authentic Tiffany Favrile Glass is inscribed on the underside with signature and date code. 


Height: 4 ¼ inches (10.8. cm)

References:
Martin Eidelberg, “Tiffany Favrile Glass and the Quest of Beauty,” (Lillian Nassau LLC, New York: 2007), 28