The Favrile Pottery of L. C. Tiffany

Louis Comfort Tiffany introduced his line of ceramics in St. Louis at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904. Compared to Tiffany glass in all its forms the pottery is rare. The total pottery production of Tiffany Studios is around two thousand pieces. The remaining number of existing pieces is small due to the fragility of ceramics and neglect by collectors in favor of art glass lamps, windows, fine jewelry and metal work. The Morse Museum in Winter Park, FL has the largest known collection of Tiffany Favrile pottery, about 90 pieces. Pottery was one of the last mediums Tiffany would explore and he had a great passion for it. Tiffany may have been more personally involved with pottery production than any other line he ever sold. It was named Favrile Pottery using the same old English term that Tiffany used for his glass. Registered as a Tiffany Trademark Feb. 1892 “Favrile” means hand-made or crafted.

Tiffany’s ceramics reflect the same formal and thematic concerns that distinguish his work in other mediums and include naturalism, historicism, exoticism and abstraction. Tiffany’s ceramic garden often amounts to nearly life-size representational sculpture. The use of ideas and forms from China, Japan, North Africa, Assyria (Iraq) and Persia (Iran) reflects the general interest in new travel and trade opportunities of the time. The movement away from realistic images in Tiffany’s ceramics and his work in general heralded the development of abstract art later in the century.


Throughout his 40-year career, Tiffany exhibited at every major international exposition, winning numerous honors, including a gold medal at St. Louis’s 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. In St. Louis, at least seven churches and the tombs of two prominent families were adorned with Tiffany stained glass. Other significant Tiffany commissions in St. Louis include interior decoration for the Busch family in 1911.


This information is based on notes compiled by Anthony Mier, the St. Louis Art Museum and the Morse Museum of Winter Park, FL.


Photo: Tiffany Furnaces, Vase, 1904-14, The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art collection, Winter Park, FL


http://www.lctiffanypottery.com/history3.htm


http://www.morsemuseum.org/home.html


http://stlouis.art.museum/emuseum/code/emuseum.asp?collection=6737&collectionname=Decorative%20Arts%20and%20Design&style=Browse&currentrecord=1&page=collection&profile=objects&searchdesc=Decorative%20Arts%20and%20Design&quicksearch=tiffany