Tiffany Studios Internally Decorated Daisy Favrile Vase

Internally Decorated Daisy Favrile Glass Vase
Tiffany Studios
Circa 1912

This exceptional Favrile glass vase by Tiffany Studios is distinguished by its extraordinarily rare internal decoration. Created using the technically demanding paperweight technique, the vase’s delicate daisy motif is embedded within layers of glass rather than applied to its surface. Tiffany’s paperweight vases were among the studio’s most artistic and technically ambitious creations, transforming molten glass into remarkably naturalistic floral compositions. The technique, developed at Tiffany’s glasshouse shortly after 1900, was an ideal vehicle for expressing Louis Comfort Tiffany’s lifelong fascination with flowers.

The graceful daisies rise from a cluster of lush foliage, their slender golden-green stems extending upward through the luminous body of the vase. Because the flowers are encased within the glass itself, they possess an extraordinary sense of dimension, appearing almost to float inside the vessel. Soft shades of green, amber, cream and violet mingle throughout the composition, while the broad bowl and elegantly waisted form enhance the impression of a living bouquet captured permanently in glass.

Producing such internal decoration required extraordinary control. In the paperweight technique, the decorative elements were encased between layers of transparent glass while the vessel was still being blown and shaped. Tiffany Studios continually refined this difficult process to create increasingly sophisticated floral designs. Such paperweight vases were among the most artistic objects of blown Favrile glass created by Tiffany's glasshouse.

Louis Comfort Tiffany was one of the great innovators of American decorative art. Inspired above all by nature and color, he introduced his first blown Favrile vessels in the 1890s and quickly won international acclaim for their extraordinary luminosity and craftsmanship.

Signed "L.C.Tiffany Favrile"

6 1/4" high x 6" diameter