Tiffany glass

Tiffany glass refers to the many types of art glass developed and produced from 1878 to 1932 at the Tiffany Studios in New York City, by Louis Comfort Tiffany and a team of other designers, including Clara Driscoll, Agnes F. Northrop, Frederick Wilson, and Alice Carmen Gouvy. They made stained glass windows, Tiffany lamps with glass shades, glass mosaics, vases and other blown glass items, and other decorative art for homes, churches, and businesses such as hotels. This was part of a larger movement of Art Nouveau glass.

In 1865, Tiffany traveled to Europe, and in London he visited the Victoria and Albert Museum, whose extensive collection of Roman glass and Syrian glass made a deep impression on him. He admired the coloration of medieval glass and was convinced that the quality of contemporary glass could be improved upon because the production of art glass in America during this time was not close to what Europeans were creating. In his own words, the "Rich tones are due in part to the use of pot metal full of impurities, and in part to the uneven thickness of the glass, but still more because the glass maker of that day abstained from the use of paint".

Tiffany was an interior designer, and in 1878 his interest turned toward the creation of stained glass. He opened his own studio and glass foundry because he was unable to find the types of glass that he desired in interior decoration. His inventiveness both as a designer of windows and as a producer of the material with which to create them was to become renowned. Tiffany wanted the glass itself to transmit texture and rich colors, and he developed a type of glass he called "Favrile".