WheatonArts :: Museum of American Glass :: Exhibitions :: Past Exhibits :: 2004 Glass Threads
Exhibitions
Past Exhibits
GLASS THREADS: TIFFANY-QUEZAL-IMPERIAL-DURAND
In April 2004, the Museum of American Glass opened its major exhibition exploring the multiple threads that linked the extraordinary creations of four of America's most distinctive glass manufacturers - Tiffany, Quezal, Imperial and Durand. The threads lead in three directions: company ownership and management, individual glass workers, and the similarities of product design.
This intriguing tapestry originates with Martin Bach Sr., whom Louis Comfort Tiffany hired as his glass formula mixer in the late 19th century. Then, it weaves its way through the Art Nouveau milieu in the careers of three generations of artists, craftsmen, and entrepreneurs at the Quezal, Imperial and Durand glass companies.
Thanks to a generous gift of the papers of the Martin Bach family in 1994, curators can now tie these threads together with ever more certainty. Within these unpublished papers are original drawings, catalog pages and photographs. Penciled line drawings from Quezal clearly illustrate the overlap of designs originally developed at Tiffany. The most common of the designs was the threading of a glass piece, which was then tooled into a feather motif. Later, much simpler patterns illuminate the remarkable similarity of shape and design produced at Quezal, then Imperial, and eventually Durand.
The exhibition includes important examples from all four of the companies represented as we trace the glass thread for almost half a century. The exhibition includes pieces from our own collection, one of the most comprehensive historical collections of American glass in the world, as well as pieces from major private collections throughout the region.
