Design

Literature

Rosalind M. Pepall, ed., Tiffany: Color and Light, pp. 110-111 (for a discussion and illustration of glass used by Tiffany Studios in leaded windows)

Catalogue Note

Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), son of Charles Lewis Tiffany (1812-1902), began experimenting with glass in the 1870s, and by the 1890s his firm Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company - later renamed Tiffany Studios - was one of the most influential and widely-acclaimed designers of interiors and decorative arts, commissioned to produce interiors for public and civic projects as well as the homes of the Gilded Age's elite. Along with John La Farge (1835-1910), Tiffany created a "renaissance in stained glass." Working with patents for opalescent glass alongside colored, plated, textured, flashed, etched and enameled glass, artists at Tiffany's glass studio in Corona, Queens, New York, created masterworks of leaded glass windows, lighting, and free-blown vases and decorative objects.

New sources of wealth in America following the Civil War coupled with socio-religious factors saw the creation of new or refurbished religious edifices in the modern taste. A savvy self-promoter, Tiffany created a chapel interior of leaded glass windows, mosaic columns, and a magnificent chandelier at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago which garnered the firm unprecedented exposure, public accolades, and further ecclesiastical commissions. "Ecclesiastical figurative windows, the mainstay of the Tiffany firm's production," writes Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, the Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "presented an unparalleled opportunity to showcase the ingenuity of its depictions of drapery in lustrous colors and, more importantly, its rendering of folds with manipulated glass, not paint." Under the supervision of the English-born glass-maker Arthur J. Nash and head of Tiffany's ecclesiastical department Frederick Wilson, the windows for St. Andrew’s Episcopal represent the impact of Tiffany’s art in glass for ecclesiastical patrons; in the fully developed narrative scheme of the firm’s figurative windows and majesty of their landscapes of lush florals and skylines.

Lot Essay

Tiffany Splendor: Three Windows for St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Meriden, Connecticut

Tiffany Studios created four windows for St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Meriden, CT. The first was prior to 1897, in memory of someone in the Dodd family. It has never been identified, although it appeared in Tiffany Studios’ lists of projects in 1897 and 1910. Samuel Dodd, secretary and treasurer of the Wilson Silver Plate Company in Meriden, was a vestryman and important patron of the church. His wife, Catherine (called Kate) Brooks died in 1889. In June 1892, a window was installed in the church in her memory, but the short article announcing it did not indicate who made the window or what it represented, which was not unusual.[1] The Tiffany lists did not describe it either. Although the church has no window dedicated to Mrs. Dodd, the window here, representing a bower of passion flowers above a garden of irises and possibly mock orange, against a vibrant sunset, is probably the Dodd memorial window, but has lost its dedication plates. It is not known whether they existed and have been removed, or were never installed. Its style, design, and craftsmanship are consistent with that of Tiffany Studios, with lovely blue and purple coloring, the orange and gold of the sunset picked up by the colors in the vents where the dedication would have been. A distant band of deep purple water sets off the brilliantly lit flowers, and group of trees form the middle distance. The iris blossoms are given dimension by a remarkable light blue glass with swirls and streaks of deep purple and some inclusions of green and gold glass chips, a highly unusual glass. Rippled glass depicts veins and shadows on the rhododendron leaves that span the center mullion. The deep blue of the passion-flower petals is set off against a paler blue sky, both of exquisite opalescent glass. Swirled and mottled glass creates the intense sunset and the deep purple sky above it. Similar Tiffany compositions can be found in the Julia Wheeler Tiffany Memorial window in St. James Episcopal Church, Bronx, NY.[2] The window bears the verse from the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord,” a moving and fitting sentiment for a memorial window. The lack of a signature is not unusual.

The other three windows made by Tiffany for the church were for members of the Curtis family. Like Samuel Dodd, the Curtises were involved in the silverplate business for which Meriden was famous. They were highly placed in the Meriden Britannia Company, and heavily involved with St. Andrew’s Church. The father, George Redfield Curtis, married Augusta Munson in 1855. The pair had two children, George Munson Curtis and Agnes Deshon Curtis, who married Allen B. Squire. The first Tiffany window created for the Curtis family was The Annunciation, following the death in 1902 of Agnes Curtis Squire. It was previously sold by the church.

The next window, offered here, was given by George Munson Curtis in memory of his mother, Augusta Munson Curtis, who died in 1914. It represents the Good Samaritan and was installed in 1915. The Good Samaritan is exquisitely made. Probably designed by Frederick Wilson for Tiffany, it shows an unusual aspect of the parable: whereas most artworks focus on the first part of the story when the Samaritan finds the robbed and injured man, this window shows the end of the account, when the Samaritan has placed the man on his donkey and is taking him to the inn to be cared for. This introduces the animal to the scene, giving the designer the opportunity to depict fur and golden trappings, which are handled beautifully. The bridle is fancy with tassels and a small, rounded cap, all executed in red etched glass layered with brilliant yellow. The donkey’s face is lovingly painted on mauve glass so that one can feel the velvety warmth of the creature’s nose. The Samaritan is dressed in deep red robes made of drapery glass. At the hem is a swinging fringe, acid-etched and layered for liveliness and depth. His head wrap is luscious piece of white drapery glass with plating of blue and pink to give it form and roundness. The injured man is likewise swathed in drapery glass of a moody turquoise tint. The painting of the flesh of both figures is dramatic, with deep shadows against the red, blue, and brown enamels. The misery of the injured man and the compassion of the Samaritan are quite evident. The forested background around and above the pair is carried out with layers of confetti glass, giving distance while creating a dappled light effect. The lantern carried by the Samaritan casts its warming glow on the ground around his feet in contrast to the gloom of the forest. The window is signed and dated in the lower right corner of the right vent section.

The last Tiffany window for St. Andrew’s is the memorial to George Munson Curtis, who died in 1915, only a year after his mother. The window was installed in 1917 and depicts the scene when the twelve-year-old Jesus was discovered by his mother at the temple, debating with the elders. Frederick Wilson created this design at least as early as 1905, and it was used for several other windows.[3] It shows Jesus with his mother in the right lancet, she trying to coax him away to go home with her. The boy is taken up by his passion for what is happening, telling her that he is about his father’s business while resting his hand on a book sitting a table with lion legs. Three elders occupy the left lancet, a scroll in hand from which they are trying to convince the child. All the figures are dressed in drapery glass. Jesus and Mary have blue robes, setting them apart in an ethereal glow. The elders wear pink, green, and blue robes. The painted faces are exquisite, especially that of Jesus, the focal point of the window.

More than half the scene depicts the soaring columns and roof of the temple, Egyptian in style with fine carving created with acid-etching. A heavy blue curtain with golden trim is drawn aside to reveal the columns. Smoke from a hanging lamp on the left wafts through the space toward the open sky. The temple is in blue shadow with hints of pink and yellow in opalescent glass. The window is signed and dated in the lower right corner of the right vent panel.

-Julie Sloan, Stained-Glass Consultant, Lake Placid, New York

[1] “Admired by All,” Meriden Daily Republican (June 20, 1892), 8.

[2] Illustrated in Alastair Duncan, Tiffany Windows (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1980), pl. 88.

[3] “New Memorial Window,” Boston Evening Transcript (June 12, 1905), 11, attributes a window of the same design to Wilson.