Tiffany Studios (established 1880) was established in New York, NY, by Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848–1933). Tiffany attended school at the Pennsylvania Military Academy in Chester, PA, and Eagleswood Military Academy in Perth Amboy, NJ. In 1875, Tiffany became interested in glassmaking. He worked for several glasshouses in New York before joining forces with Candace Wheeler (American, 1827–1923),
Samuel Colman (American, 1832–1920), and
Lockwood de Forest (American, 1850–1932). The four members of this group joined together to establish an interior design company.
In 1881, Tiffany was asked to design the interior of the Mark Twain House in Hartford, CT. In 1885, Tiffany left the group and opened his own glassmaking company, known as Tiffany Studios. Tiffany used multi-colored, textured, opalescent glass to create a unique type of stained glass. In 1893, Tiffany Glass Furnaces was built in Queens, NY. The company created blown glass, called Favrile. This type of glass was used in the construction of all Tiffany Studios designs. One of the first lamps designed by Tiffany Studios was exhibited at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. In 1894, the company trademarked Favrile to prevent others from copying the design.
In 1895, Tiffany Studios began to produce stained-glass lamps, which featured the use of mosaics.
Clara Driscoll (American, 1861–1944) was the designer that created each of the designs for the Tiffany lamps. It was originally thought that Louis Comfort Tiffany created the designs until Driscoll was identified in 2007. Most of the lamps in the late 1800s were machine-produced, but each one of Tiffany Studios's lamps and glass items were handmade. In 1900, Tiffany Studios won a gold medal for
The Four Seasons stained glass windows.
Girl with Cherry Blossoms was another well-known stained glass window created by Tiffany Studios.
Tiffany Studios closed in 1930, just before the death of its founder in 1933. Today, Tiffany Lamps creates reproduction lamps based off the old designs from Tiffany Studios. The company also repairs older Tiffany lamps. In 2006, a major exhibition of the work of Tiffany Studios opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.