Louis C. Tiffany Double Deck Playing Cards

Description

The images reproduced on these bridge-sized playing cards are details from Magnolias and Irises, a Favrile glass window designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848–1933) in the Museum’s collection. The window features an embankment of irises idly situated beneath flowering magnolia trees in the foreground. Magnificent purple hills are set in the background with a central meandering stream, possibly emblematic of the river of life. This piece exemplifies Louis Comfort Tiffany’s lifelong fascination with light, color, and nature.

Includes 2 decks; 52 bridge-sized playing cards per deck. Embossed paper with plastic coating. Gift boxed. Cards: 2 1/4'' x 3 1/2'' each; box: 5 3/8''W x 3 3/4''H.

Art History

A master of many media, Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848–1933) was one of America’s most noted decorative artists at the turn of the twentieth century. Son of the founder of the silver and jewelry firm Tiffany & Co. of New York, Louis C. Tiffany began his career as a painter but moved quickly to interior decoration and leaded-glass windows, creating revolutionary types of opalescent glass that radiated especially deep, vibrant hues. Using variations in color and thickness of glass, he achieved pictorial effects of unsurpassed subtlety and beauty. In the early 1890s, Louis Comfort Tiffany developed a method of blending different colors together in glass while it was in a molten state, thus achieving subtle effects of shading and texture. He called this type of glass, which was often noted for its iridescence, Favrile glass (from fabrile, and Old English word meaning "hand-wrought").