| Louis Comfort Tiffany began as a painter. His | | | | their own refineries, located in Corona, Queens, |
| interests later turned more towards applied arts. | | | | New York. He exhibited the new firm's first lamps |
| He became interested in glassmaking around 1875 | | | | in Chicago in 1893 and was awarded fifty four |
| and was employed at several glasshouses in | | | | prizes. |
| Brooklyn between then and 1878. During that | | | | In 1894, his company trademarked the name, |
| time he designed and made his first glass window. | | | | "Favrile" in conjunction with his first production of |
| The first Tiffany Glass Company was | | | | iridescent glass. Tiffany's first commercially |
| incorporated in 1885, which in 1902 became | | | | produced lamps date from around 1895. The first |
| known as the Tiffany Studios. His windows | | | | lamp catalog appeared in 1898. The Paris World |
| became very well known and were included in | | | | Exhibition of 1900 was huge success for Tiffany. |
| designs for hotels, clubhouses, villas, churches, and | | | | His Dragonfly Lamp was awarded Grand Prize. |
| theaters. | | | | Much of his company's production was in making |
| At the start of his career, Tiffany used | | | | stained glass windows and Tiffany lamps, but his |
| inexpensive jelly jars and bottles because they | | | | company designed a complete range of interior |
| had the mineral impurities that finer glass lacked. | | | | products. |
| When he was unable to persuade fine | | | | After 1918, nothing more was signed with the |
| glassmakers to leave the impurities in, he began | | | | "Tiffany Studios, New York" stamp. In 1932 The |
| creating his own glass. Tiffany used opalescent | | | | Tiffany Studios declared bankruptcy. Louis |
| glass in many colors and textures to create a | | | | Comfort Tiffany died a year later, on January 17, |
| unique style of stained glass. This can be | | | | 1933, and is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in |
| contrasted with the method of painting in glass | | | | Brooklyn, New York. At the time of his death, the |
| paint or enamels on colorless glass that had been | | | | worldwide recession was at its peak and America |
| the popular method of creating stained glass for | | | | was flooded with the product of his workshop. In |
| several hundred years in Europe. In 1893, Tiffany | | | | 1946, when Tiffany's name was almost forgotten, |
| built a new factory called the Sturbridge Glass | | | | his private collection was auctioned off. |
| Company, later called Tiffany Glass Furnaces, with | | | | |