The Louis C. Tiffany Garden Museum in Matsue, Japan, houses one of the world's finest and most comprehensive collections of Louis C. Tiffany's work. Not only does it present a collection of work from every artistic discipline to which Tiffany applied himself, but it also shows masterpieces from each one of those disciplines. In recording, describing and providing a commentary on the collection, Louis C. Tiffany: The Garden Museum Collection offers an overview of the breadth of Tiffany's talent and the scale of his output, which is at once comprehensive and detailed.
A lush, coffee table sized book, the work reproduces in colour every piece in the Garden Museum collection: paintings, furniture, windows, mosaics, art glass, lamps, fancy goods, metal ware, enamels, silver and liturgical works, pottery, and jewellery are represented. The work is not, however, simply an inventory, nor is it merely a collection of beautiful photographs. Separate chapters are devoted to each artistic genre and a short introduction by the author, an international consultant on nineteenth and twentieth century decorative arts, precedes annotated photographs of each piece. The chapter on lamps, for example, begins by explaining that the specific names and terminology, including the model and patent numbers for each shade and base, are given in two price lists issued by Tiffany in 1906 and 1913 and which serve as a master index through which most Tiffany lamps can be identified. The information given in the annotations includes a brief description of the piece together with its dimensions, price and model number. In addition, extracts from contemporary art reviews, advertisements and sales catalogues provide an insight into the impact of the pieces at the time. Adding still more to the fascination value of this work are photographs showing the pieces, particularly the furniture, in their original domestic settings or in the Tiffany showrooms. Notes and annotated sketches prepared by the designers are also included.
Not only are the Tiffany pieces themselves detailed and reproduced. Additional chapters cover the Tiffany workshops and showrooms, expositions and salons, and residences. There are photographs, sketches and floor plans of the showrooms; catalogue entries and exhibition notes; and photographs and descriptions of the residences.
To set the collection in context, the work closes with an examination of the end of the Tiffany era, telling, through extracts from newspaper and journal articles, of the death of Louis C. Tiffany and briefly setting that in the context of the rise of modernism and Art Deco. The final chapters focus on three collections of the Garden Museum: Art Nouveau, Japonisme and Japanese works of art, all of which are said to enable the visitor (and the reader) better to appreciate Tiffany's work within the context of the period in which he worked, and the styles which drove it.
Overall, this is an opulent and fascinating work, in terms both of the lush beauty of the photography and also of the range of information it contains. Its value lies not only here, but also in the fact that the work gathers together pieces, including masterpieces, from so wide a range of artistic genres.
