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Louis Comfort Tiffany "Water Lilies and Frogs" Coupe
$55,000
A "Water Lilies and Frogs" pottery coupe by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Created in the rough shape of a budding water lily, this coupe features a splayed, disc shaped base decorated with overlapping and wonderfully detailed water lily pads. The body of the vase, which serves as its narrowest point, is striated with the many stems of the plants, while the uppermost tier of the composition mimics the appearance of the water lily blooms. Replete with a scalloped uppermost border and adorned with the likenesses of frogs throughout, the charming composition, which is done in hues of only golden yellow and bone white, offers a fantastical understanding of a watery landscape.
- Product Details
- Curator's Notes
Item #: YT-20271
Artist: Louis Comfort Tiffany
Country: United States
Circa: 1900
Size: 7" height, 8" width
Materials: Glazed Porcelaneous Earthenware
Signed: "L.C.T. Monogram"
Literature: A similar planter is pictured in Louis C. Tiffany's Glass-Bronzes-Lamps by Robert Koch, p.150, pl. 250; and in Tiffany Favrile Pottery and the Quest of Beauty by Martin Eidelberg, New York: Lillian Nassau LLC, 2007, p. 23, # 31
Tiffany famously had a water lily pond made in his personal garden, which he filled with world's first colored water lilies. These colored lilies, produced by Latour Marliac were put on display at the 1900 world's fair, drawing the attention of both Tiffany and Monet. To nineteenth century symbolists, frogs were representations of malicious spiritual trickery. Paired with the lily, the symbol of feminine purity, the water lilies and frogs can be seen as an allegory of corruption or feminine duplicity.