Goode Glass FINAL (6-26-23) - Flipbook - Page 14
Thomas Webb & Sons received a Grand Prix award for its elaborate products at the 1889 Paris
exposition, where they shared exhibition space with Tiffany & Co. The ground-breaking creations
of this eminent American glass designer formed another focal point for Walter Chrysler, who
reportedly had met Tiffany as a child, and they also resonated with Susan and David Goode.
Over time, the Goodes acquired several superb examples of Tiffany’s Favrile® flower-form
vases, American art nouveau designs praised by contemporary European design critics for their
unsurpassed, satiny surface appearance. The group includes one of Tiffany Furnaces’ iconic socalled “jack-in-the-pulpit” vases with a luxurious blue iridescent hue and an extravagantly large,
ruffled rim.
Tiffany Studios
(American,
1902–1932),
Untitled
(Lava Vase),
circa 1894–1900,
blown glass
Susan Goode particularly cherishes a rare Tiffany Lava Vase,
a type of glass evoking the contrasting layers of molten and
cooled lava. Tiffany Furnaces found this innovative surface
appearance extremely difficult to achieve and it was produced
only for brief periods, from 1906 to 1908 and again from 1915
to 1916. Tiffany’s Lava glass was considered an “acquired taste”
then, and that public attitude did not change, resulting in few
surviving examples. As the inclusion (and appreciation) of the
Lava Vase shows, the Goodes' personal collecting viewpoint has
always been distinctive.
The Goodes have a collection of both Native American and pre-Columbian Mesoamerican art,
and some glass acquisitions reveal tie-ins with Susan Goode’s deep interest in anthropological
subjects. Examples include Tlingit artist Preston Singletary’s Raven Transformation Mask and also
Swedish sculptor and designer Bertil Vallien’s cast plaque Map XI, which infers the timeless quest
of human exploration and discovery. Other works represent pioneering artists who developed
technologies that are uniquely their own, such as Toots Zynsky’s filet de verre forms — sculptural
vessels made of fused colorful glass threads — or Ginny Ruffner’s flame-worked and painted
structures. An exquisite group of unique vessels by Japanese sculptor and designer Yoichi Ohira,
Jay Musler
(American,
born 1949),
Cityscape Bowl,
designed 1980
whose complex abstract patterns are executed by highly
trained Venetian craftsmen, demonstrates that ancient
mosaic glass techniques can result in thoroughly modern
sculptures when formed by melding multicultural visions
and skills. The Cityscape Bowl by Jay Musler, one of Susan
Goode’s favorite objects, is an icon of American studio
glass. Designed in 1980, the artist chose an industrially
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