Tiffany Studios New York "Scarab" Humidor Box

First offered through Tiffany & Co., this stunningly naturalistic humidor, which is believed to have been carved from a single piece of wood by Joseph Briggs, was featured in Tiffany & Co.’s Blue Books from 1906 to 1912. The two Favrile glass scarabs reflect a fascination with Ancient Egypt that began in the 1860s with the first archaeological explorations and continued through the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods. The scarab represented the Egyptian sun god Khepri and was a symbol of resurrection. The ancient Egyptians placed scarabs on mummies for good luck and protection against evil as they made their journey to the next world.
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Category: Museum Acquisitions New Acquisitions Rarest Finds Tiffany Objects Tiffany Studios New York
Product Details

Item #: T-21822
Artist: Tiffany Studios New York
Country: United States
Circa: 1906
Dimensions: 4.25" height, 4.5" width, 4" depth.
Materials: Wood, Favrile Glass, Bronze
Signed: impressed with Tiffany Studios monogram
Condition Report: Wood with customary separations at the underside, which continue to visible bottom of humidor. Large inset cypriote with old stable crack. Top scarab with old stable crack diagonally across the center of the body. These imperfections are only visible on close inspection, none are visually distracting.
Exhibition History: This box is one of seven known signed examples, three of which are in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, Virginia, and the Louis C. Tiffany Garden Museum, Japan.
Literature: Alastair Duncan, Martin Eidelberg and Neil Harris, Masterworks of Louis Comfort Tiffany, London, 1989, p. 55 (for a related example) Alastair Duncan, Fin de Siècle Masterpieces from the Silverman Collection, New York, 1989, pp. 10 and 65 (for a related example) Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Louis Comfort Tiffany at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, 1998, p. 91 (for a related example) Robert Koch, Louis C. Tiffany: The Collected Works of Robert Koch, Atglen, PA, 2001, cover and p. 206 (for a related example) William Warmus, The Essential Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York, 2001, p. 86 John Loring, Louis Comfort Tiffany at Tiffany and Company, New York, 2002, p. 194 (for a related example) Alastair Duncan, Louis C. Tiffany: The Garden Museum Collection, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2004, p. 387 (for a related example) Paul E. Doros, The Art Glass of Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York, 2013, p. 187 (for the present lot illustrated)

Item #: T-21822
Artist: Tiffany Studios New York
Country: United States
Circa: 1906
Dimensions: 4.25" height, 4.5" width, 4" depth.
Materials: Wood, Favrile Glass, Bronze
Signed: impressed with Tiffany Studios monogram
Condition Report: Wood with customary separations at the underside, which continue to visible bottom of humidor. Large inset cypriote with old stable crack. Top scarab with old stable crack diagonally across the center of the body. These imperfections are only visible on close inspection, none are visually distracting.
Exhibition History: This box is one of seven known signed examples, three of which are in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, Virginia, and the Louis C. Tiffany Garden Museum, Japan.
Literature: Alastair Duncan, Martin Eidelberg and Neil Harris, Masterworks of Louis Comfort Tiffany, London, 1989, p. 55 (for a related example) Alastair Duncan, Fin de Siècle Masterpieces from the Silverman Collection, New York, 1989, pp. 10 and 65 (for a related example) Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Louis Comfort Tiffany at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, 1998, p. 91 (for a related example) Robert Koch, Louis C. Tiffany: The Collected Works of Robert Koch, Atglen, PA, 2001, cover and p. 206 (for a related example) William Warmus, The Essential Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York, 2001, p. 86 John Loring, Louis Comfort Tiffany at Tiffany and Company, New York, 2002, p. 194 (for a related example) Alastair Duncan, Louis C. Tiffany: The Garden Museum Collection, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2004, p. 387 (for a related example) Paul E. Doros, The Art Glass of Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York, 2013, p. 187 (for the present lot illustrated)

Curator's Notes
Tiffany had an intense interest in Egyptian art and collected a number of ancient scarabs. The spectral colors produced by his innovative treatment of the glass resembles real beetles' natural iridescence. At the same time, the iridescent surface evokes the look of long buried ancient glass, a nod to the fact that the importance of the scarab symbol spans millennia, and was a subject of contemporary fascination in the early 20th century art world.
Tiffany had an intense interest in Egyptian art and collected a number of ancient scarabs. The spectral colors produced by his innovative treatment of the glass resembles real beetles' natural iridescence. At the same time, the iridescent surface evokes the look of long buried ancient glass, a nod to the fact that the importance of the scarab symbol spans millennia, and was a subject of contemporary fascination in the early 20th century art world.
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