The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 7, 2026

An iridescent Favrile glass vase features a rounded body and narrow neck capped with a silver rim. Shimmering, translucent bands of gold, orange, purple, and green form horizontal zigzags that glow with a metallic luster. Intricate silver mounts emerge from small leaves at the base, rising in slender stems that terminate in large, drooping foliage at the shoulders. The glass appears to ripple beneath the textured metal.

Vase

c. 1900
maker

Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company

(America, New York, 1892–1902)
retailer

Siegfried Bing

(German, active in France, 1838–1905)
America, New York
Favrile glass, silver mount
13 x 11.5 cm (5 1/8 x 4 1/2 in.)
Bequest of Charles Maurer 2018.279
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

This vase has French mounts indicating that it was likely sold by Louis Comfort Tiffany's agent in Paris, Siegfried Bing, who helped popularize Tiffany's designs throughout Europe.

Description

This small vase is made of Louis Comfort Tiffany's signature Favrile glass. Early on when Tiffany began collaborating with glass artists on new types of production, his aesthetic ambitions were realized in the development of Favrile glass, deliberately named to sound French, expensive, and “handmade.” Largely through Tiffany's marketing ability, Favrile glass became America’s greatest contribution to the Art Nouveau style. His works were exhibited at international expositions; galleries in major European cities, where his creations were bought by many museums; and in his store in Manhattan, known as the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Co., later Tiffany Studios. Along with the many shapes and sizes of his decorative vases, Tiffany used Favrile glass in mosaic panels, stained glass windows, and his artistic line of table and floor lamps.
  • ?–2018
    Charles Maurer [1929-2016], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2018–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Tiffany in Bloom: Stained Glass Lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 20, 2019-October 4, 2020).
    Artistic Luxury: Fabergé Tiffany Lalique . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 19, 2008-January 18, 2009); Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (February 7-May 31, 2009).
  • {{cite web|title=Vase|url=false|author=Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company, Siegfried Bing|year=c. 1900|access-date=07 June 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.279