Church of St Andrew, Kimbolton, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire
Address
Church of St Andrew, Kimbolton, Huntingdon PE28 0HHRecommended by
Highlight
South window of south chapelArtist, maker and date
Tiffany Studios, 1901Reason for highlighting
Tiffany is one of the USA’s most significant artists and this is his only window in an English parish church. It is also a rare example of the use of opalescent glass.
The window commemorates the twin daughters of Consuelo Yznaga, an American of Cuban descent and widow of the 8th Duke of Manchester. The daughters, both of whom died young, are shown kneeling in front of Christ.
Artist/maker notes
Tiffany Studios (1885-1930), founded by Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) the American artist and designer, produced a range of mosaics, lamps, pottery, jewellery, and stained glass windows. Tiffany, along with his rival John La Farge, is particularly noted for his work with opalescent glass, also known as American Glass. This is a type of iridescent glass, where different colours are fused together during production to produce subtle effects of shading and colour, for which both had secured patents by 1881. In late 1892 or early 1893 Tiffany went on to develop a method whereby different colours were instead blended together in the molten state, so achieving subtle effects of shading and texture, which he called ‘Favrile’.
Source: Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen and Monica Obniski. “Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History – The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York