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 volume: 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.
About the Author: Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen is Curator of American Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Publisher: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York & Yale University Press, New Haven and London. 2006.