Iris Corsage Ornament
Louis Comfort Tiffanyca. 1900
The Walters Art Museum
Baltimore, United States
At the turn of the 20th century, Tiffany and Co. produced a number of fabulous, realistic floral brooches. This extravagant example designed by G. Paulding Furnham was in the firm's display at the Exposition Universelle of 1900. It is set with faceted blue sapphires mined, which vary in intensity of color and hue as well as size. The blossom is composed of three sepals, or upright petals, and three falls, or drooping sepals, in oxidized silver, beneath which are three small small branches in etched gold. The bearding of the falls is suggested by citrines mounted in gold collets. The blossom emerges from a long, etched gold stem, from which spring three spathes rendered in demantoid garnets mounted "a jour" in gold frames.
- Title: Iris Corsage Ornament
- Creator Lifespan: 1837/2007
- Creator Nationality: American
- Date Created: ca. 1900
- Physical Dimensions: w6.9 x h24.1 x d3.175 cm
- Type: brooches
- Rights: Acquired by Henry Walters, 1900, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
- External Link: The Walters Art Museum
- Medium: Montana sapphires, diamonds, demantoid garnets, topaz, blued steel, gold alloys, platinum
- Provenance: Tiffany & Co., New York; 1900 "Paris Exposition Universelle," Paris, 1900; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1900, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
- Place of Origin: New York, New York, USA
- Manufacturer: Tiffany and Company
- Inscriptions: [Mark] TCO
- ExhibitionHistory: Jewelry - Ancient to Modern. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1979-1980; Objects of Adornment: Five Thousand Years of Jewelry from the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio; Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa; Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota. 1984-1987; Jewelry from the Walters Art Museum and the Zucker Family Collection. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1987; Tiffany: 150 Years of Gems and Jewelry. The Field Museum, Chicago. 1987-1988; A Magnificent Age: Masterpieces from the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte. 2002-2004; Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry from the Walters Art Museum. Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2006-2009; Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry. El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso. 2010; Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at World's Fairs, 1851-1939. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans; Mint Museum of Art Randoplh, Charlotte; Mint Museum of Art Uptown, Charlotte. 2012-2014
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