Tiffany Girls

Since their obsessive popularity beginning in the early 20th century, few objects are more sought after by art collectors than Tiffany lamps—many originals now selling in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, including a 2015 sale at Sotheby’s New York City of a Dragonfly lamp once owned by Andrew Carnegie, which fetched a whopping 2.1 million dollars. For those who prefer a less expensive glimpse at Tiffany lamps, some of the best collections can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum—both in New York City—the Art Institute of Chicago and the Neustadt Collection at the Queens Museum, Queens, New York. Opening their doors in 1883, Tiffany Glass Furnaces of Queens began producing a type of blown glass known as Favrile, which was then utilized by Tiffany Studios for the creation of Tiffany lamps, vases and other light-inducing collectibles.

First Appearance

First exhibited at the Chicago Worlds Fair of that same year, due to its immediate popularity, the company quickly trademarked Favrile to prevent other studios from copying their designs, and while credit for the company’s intricate patterns was given to artist and craftsman Louis Comfort Tiffany—extending well beyond his death in 1933— the true creative genius behind Tiffany lamps was the self-described Tiffany Girls, who were a group of female artists led by Clara Driscoll, responsible for the lion’s share of the company’s iconic works of art. Discovered in several hundred family letters in 2005, between Clara Driscoll to her mother and three sisters back in their native Ohio, the letters provide proof positive that Driscoll and her team were the designers behind the company’s most sought after patterns, including the wisteria, butterfly, fern, poppy and dragonfly models.

Growing Workforce

Beginning with five Tiffany Girls and growing to 35 by the time Tiffany Studios shuttered its doors in 1930, the company never once publicly acknowledged their female design team, and while Driscoll’s 1944 death certificate lists her occupation as housewife, since the discovery of her letters, Driscoll’s reputation has been elevated in two novels and multiple museum exhibits across the nation, making Tiffany Girls, a newly-revealed secret from the American past.