Posted by Rudy Veraar
on December 29, 2025
Tiffany-style glass mosaic is a revolutionary art form in which thousands of small pieces of iridescent and opalescent glass (tesserae) are assembled to form a detailed image. Instead of using uniform square tiles, Louis Comfort Tiffany had the glass pieces cut into irregular shapes that followed the natural lines of the design.
The Sectiliae Method: Pointillism in Glass
Tiffany also applied his philosophy of "painting with glass" to mosaics. His artisans used the sectiliae method, in which glass was cut into specific shapes that mimicked the brushstrokes of the original design. This process shows strong parallels to Pointillism: up close, one sees thousands of individual fragments, but from a distance, they merge into a vibrant and luminous whole.
From Monumental Walls to Exclusive Lamp Bases
The mosaic technique was applied on various scales within Tiffany Studios:
- Dream Garden (1916): This massive artwork in Philadelphia contains over 100,000 pieces of Favrile glass in more than 260 color shades.
- Architectural Mosaics: Mostly produced by the Ecclesiastical Department for churches and public buildings.
- Mosaic Lamp Bases: Clara Driscoll was a pioneer in designing complex mosaic bases that often depict slender tree trunks. These bases are among the studio's most precious objects.
Innovative Materials
To create an extra dimension, the studio often used metal foil on the back of transparent glass pieces to create a luminous effect. Three-dimensional "glass jewels" were also inserted to add texture and depth to the surfaces. Today, the Neustadt Collection in New York manages an archive of over a quarter of a million original glass pieces that were specifically preserved for this mosaic work.
Read also:
Discover how this technique of cutting and assembling glass was refined for lampshades in our article on the Copper Foil Method.
