79008 - Tiffany Studios

Tiffany Studios The Lady of the Lake Tiffany Studios Springtime Window, circa 1920 Leaded glass 38-3/8 x 29-1/8 inches (97.5 x 74.0 cm) (excluding frame) Marks: L.C. Tiffany N.Y. While best known for its ecclesiastical projects, Tiffany Studios also transformed the window into a central element of the American domestic interior in the early 20th century. In commissions for private houses, leaded glass could provide privacy and soften direct sunlight while giving a room a view conceived by an artist. Gardens, flowering trees, and distant landscapes remained luminous through changing daylight and seasons. Such windows were often closely related to their architectural setting: the Wisteria window for Louis Tiffany Comfort's own Laurelton Hall estate, for example, evoked the gardens outside. Tiffany's residential work thus brought an idealized natural world into the home and made light itself part of its decoration. The effect depended on the expressive possibilities of glass as much as on design. Tiffany Studios used glass with varied color, opacity, and surface texture to suggest the softness of petals, the density of foliage, and the atmosphere of a distant sky. Its artisans could also plate pieces of glass, layering them to deepen a color or alter the way light passed through it. The resulting images have a painterly richness, yet their appearance changes as the light behind them changes. They reveal both Louis Comfort Tiffany's ambition for the medium and the skilled, collaborative work of the studio's designers and glassworkers. The window pictured here, Springtime, demonstrates those qualities in a figural composition. A barefoot woman in pale, flowing drapery moves through a stand of blue and violet irises. She lifts one arm toward her head while warm light gathers behind her against a sky of deep blue and muted gold. Dark lead lines give definition to the folds of her dress and the long leaves below, while the varied glass lends movement to the sky and water. While its original location is unknown, its moderate size and subject matter suggest it may have been commissioned for a domestic space. HID00307232019 © 2026 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice Enameled lower right: L.C. Tiffany N.Y. circa 1898 Leaded glass 38.375in x 29.125in x 0in Tiffany Studios 500223246