No Breakfast, but lots of Tiffany!

I write a lot about New York even though I don’t live there. Fortunately, my brother has lived there for most of his life so I’ve had the luxury of experiencing the city over the years. Currently he lives just down the street from the New York Historical Society Museum and Library. Early in my research for The Whispering Women, the Museum hosted an exhibit of Tiffany works. Walking through the exhibit was like visiting a wonderland. This photo (by Fopseh, Wikimedia) of the Virginia Museum Fine Arts Exhibit will give you an idea:

What I didn’t know before this exhibit was that many of the artisans who created the famous lamp shades and other decorative items that bear the Tiffany name was not Louis Comfort Tiffany himself but were women employed by him! The most talented of the “Tiffany Girls” was a woman named Clara Driscoll. Driscoll created some of Tiffany’s most famous designs, including the Dragonfly, Wisteria, and Poppy.

An article in the New York Times reports, “As head of the women’s glass-cutting department, she led a staff called the Tiffany girls, who selected, cut and placed tiny pieces of glass in what would ultimately emerge as unique lamps, each given a name.”

As a big fan of dragonflies myself, I would love to have this lamp on my desk!

According to a placard at the exhibit, “The luxurious showroom at Tiffany Studios’ second headquarters on Madison avenue displayed a feast of lamps and ‘fancy goods’ ideal for gift-giving, including desk accessories, candlesticks, jardinieres, clocks, and small boxes. Clara Driscoll designed many of these types of objects, particularly those inlaid with the glass mosaic work executed by her Tiffany Girls.”

For you historical fiction lovers, I recommend this novel about the Tiffany Girls by Shelley Noble.

Of course, I couldn’t leave without a visit to the gift shop where I got this fabulous rain poncho!

If you have any questions or comments about any of my books, email me at tmacenulty@gmail.com