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Design for a Portiere

Designer Unidentified
ca. 1890–1902
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 691
This design for a portiere, or doorway curtain, features a deep blue ground enlivened with gold, red, and green Renaissance-style embroidery. While textiles were important elements of Tiffany's interior designs, they rarely survive intact, which makes such design drawings all the more important. Editorial remarks in graphite in the bottom margin, made by either Tiffany or the client, give a wonderful insight into how Tiffany's designs evolved from sketch to finished product: "Curtain ornament to be in center of bottom of portier and not in corner as shown."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Design for a Portiere
  • Artist: Louis C. Tiffany (American, New York 1848–1933 New York)
  • Designer: Unidentified designer
  • Maker: Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company (American, 1892–1902)
  • Date: ca. 1890–1902
  • Geography: Made in New York, United States; Country of Origin United States
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Transparent and opaque watercolor, and graphite on collage of paper mounted on paperboard
  • Dimensions: 21 1/8 × 13 1/2 in. (53.7 × 34.3 cm)
  • Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittesley Fund,1953
  • Object Number: 53.679.1825
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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Design for "Garden Landscape" Window, Linden Hall, Residence of Sarah Cochran, Dawson, Pennsylvania, Louis C. Tiffany American, Transparent and opaque watercolor, and graphite on collage of paper mounted on paperboard, American
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