A Master of Design: Louis Comfort Tiffany
When Charles Tiffany died in 1902, LCT was appointed the company’s first design director. In this role, he established the Tiffany Artistic Jewellery department in the Fifth Avenue store, where his innovative designs were created and built upon Tiffany’s long standing heritage of craftsmanship, a tradition that continues today.
A revered painter and a leader of the Art Nouveau movement, LCT, brought a distinctly American design sensibility to the jewellery and objects at Tiffany.
Inspired by the graphic disorder of nature—flowers and foliage, fruits and insects—and the varied American landscape, LCT became known for his organic designs. In his talented hands, garnets became berries with leaves of green enamel; opals in a grape motif recalled the arbors of New England; and black opals, demantoid garnets and platinum took flight in a dragonfly brooch.
A century later, his work, which is rooted in naturalism, continues to influence Tiffany designs.
