DESIGNER

Decorator to the Wealthy.

Louis Comfort Tiffany began his career in the late nineteenth century as what today would be called an interior decorator. While helping wealthy clients coordinate the furniture, wallpaper, tapestries, carpets, and light fixtures in their new homes, Tiffany became interested in the decorative possibilities of leaded-glass windows. Rejecting etched and painted glass, he experimented with colored glass. He found most colored glass too dull for his tastes, so he hired chemists to develop richer and more vibrant colors. He also experimented with different types of glass and with double panes. Tiffany's daring techniques resulted in masterful designs that used light as an active element in a way that was previously unimaginable. Tiffany also experimented with multicolored glass in mosaics, designing large, inlaid murals for the Curtis Publishing Company in Philadelphia and for the National...