Exhibition Guide

Many “modern” objects are inextricably tied to the past. In the late 1890s, Louis Comfort Tiffany gained international acclaim for iridescent objects recalling the luxuries of ancient Rome, Pompeii, and Constantinople. These two columns are covered with thousands of Favrile glass tesserae (tiles), in shades that move from peacock to midnight blue to black. At the top, Tiffany’s tile setters used golden “Cypriot” glass tiles for a grid pattern festooned with opulent cords and tassels which recall upholstery trimmings found on furniture contemporary with the columns. Tiffany gave Cypriot glass a finely pitted surface to evoke timeworn eroded glass shards excavated in archeological digs on the island of Cyprus.

The BMA’s two columns are part of a group of six that originally decorated the Tiffany Studios showrooms at Fifth Avenue and 37th Street. A pamphlet celebrating this new retail location described the columns’ style as “Pompeiian Ionic order.” (The capitals and bases are actually made of plaster and concrete rather than marble.) When Tiffany Studios declared bankruptcy in 1932, the six columns were moved to Tiffany’s estate on Long Island. After the main house burned in 1957, the columns, which had been stored in a stable, eventually came to market.