The following year he would patent Favrile glass – the iridescent art glass used liberally and distinctively in Tiffany vases, bowls, and lamps – which brought his decorative style into affluent American homes and became almost synonymous with the family name. In Corona, he and Tiffany artisans – numbering over 300 when the studio was at its peak – created sheets of opalescent glass, confetti glass, streamer glass, fracture glass, ripple glass that would essentially become the fabric for their designs. Undoubtedly inspired by his admiration of French glass artist Emile Gallé and his visit to Gallé’s factory, Tiffany was equally committed to producing blown glass vases, which he first exhibited in 1894. He benefited greatly from the expertise of his chief chemist, Englishman Arthur J. Nash, who came up with unique formulas of minerals and metal oxides that resulted in extraordinary colors and the trademark Tiffany luster – mixtures so closely guarded they were reportedly hidden from Tiffany himself.

“Tiffany was also an industry; he had a big studio. I do everything – I have had a few assistants on occasion,” said Schaechter. “A lot of crafts people are not the best drawers, as they tend to be very three-dimensional.”

Stained glass panel by Tiffany, above and Schaechter, below.

When Artizen traveled to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond in mid-July, there had already been 15,000 visitors to the Tiffany: Color and Light exhibition, the final stop in the show’s tour – having already spent last fall and winter at the Musee du Luxembourg in Paris before moving on to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts for the spring. The collection of nearly 200 pieces, amassed from private collections and museum holdings on both sides of the Atlantic, was so visually stunning it was difficult to absorb in just one visit.

Having just completed a remarkable $150 million renovation and expansion – adding the James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin wing (shown above) that would welcome Tiffany as its first guest – VMFA is now among the 10 largest comprehensive art museums in the country. Tiffany is by no means new to the museum though, as it