Tell-el Amarna vase,

1913

Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933) revolutionized the production of art glass and through his extensive studios oversaw its incorporation into an enormous array of innovative designs. Instead of painting onto glass to render detail, the method used in traditional stained glass, Tiffany developed techniques allowing glass alone to imbue objects with both color and detail. In 1894 he received the patent for Favrile glass (after “fabrile,” an Old English word for “handmade”), which involved mixing different colored glass components in a molten state to enable subtle gradations of color and texture. He later augmented this process by adding metal oxides to create an iridescent sheen on finished pieces. At the company’s most prolific time, Tiffany’s furnaces employed more than three hundred artisans, who produced objects based on his general precepts but expressing their own individual creativity.