Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall: An Artist's Country Estate

by Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Metropolitan Museum of Art (Other Contributor)

This beautiful book focuses on Laurelton Hall, Louis Comfort Tiffany’s extraordinary country estate in Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York. Beginning in 1902, Tiffany (1848–1933) designed every aspect of the immense home, which had eighty-four rooms and eight levels, and extensive grounds into which the house was carefully integrated. Tiffany’s residential masterpiece was also a quasi-museum, for he filled it with his own works—windows, glassware, pottery, enamels, lamps, oil paintings, and watercolors—as well as with objects from his collections of Islamic, Asian, and Native American art.Laurelton Hall burned down in 1957, but about ten years earlier most of its contents had been removed and sold. Every aspect of the estate is examined and re-created in this its terraced gardens with fountains and pools; the many outbuildings; and Tiffany’s life there. The interior decoration of Laurelton Hall, a particular focus of the book, is represented by both numerous period photographs and newly commissioned color photography of surviving artworks and salvaged architectural components from the estate. For all who admire Tiffany and his work, this book presents a unique portrait of his remarkable home.

Genres: Art, Architecture

262 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Lou Pare-Lobinske · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second attempt to finish this book. I've seen in person many of the windows mentioned (at the Morse Museum in Winter Park, Florida, where I bought this book), and the book goes into great detail supplementing the black and white photos taken with great descriptions of what Laurelton Hall, Tiffany's summer home, must have looked like. It made me heartsick that Laurelton has been lost to us; a fire consumed it in 1957. And as much as I love the reconstruction of Laurelton Hall at the Morse Museum, it must be only a pale imitation of what the real thing was. But at least we have this book as a memorial to Laurelton Hall, Louis Comfort Tiffany's greatest achievement.