Flower form vase,

early 20th century

<p> Among America’s most celebrated artists, Louis Comfort Tiffany revolutionized the production of fine glass and incorporated it into an enormous array of innovative designs. Tiffany believed that nature should be artists’ main source of design inspiration, and, as a result, the majority of his work incorporates naturalistic imagery. Instead of painting onto glass to render detail in the manner of traditional stained-glass production, Tiffany developed techniques to imbue glass with color. In 1894 he received the patent for favrile glass (after <em>fabrile</em>, an Old English word for handmade), the production of which involved mixing different colored glasses together in a molten state to enable subtle gradations of color and texture. Tiffany managed his studios under a specific design theory—one based on his own ideals but in which individual designers were encouraged to interpret creatively. At their most prolific, Tiffany’s furnaces employed more than three hundred artisans. </p>