Tiffany Studios Scent Bottle

Tiffany Studios
Scent Bottle

circa 1896
silver mounts executed by Ubaldo Vitali
Favrile glass, silver
vase engraved X4245 with the firm’s paper label
6¾ in. (17.1 cm) high

Condition Report:
Overall in very good condition. When viewed firsthand, the bottle displays an aqueous confluence of pastel yellows, pinks blues and purples. The glass presents with occasional minor air bubbles, particulate inclusions and surface irregularities which are inherent in the making and not visually distracting. The glass surfaces throughout with scattered, very fine and light surface scratches consistent with age and gentle handling. The later added silver collar and stopper are in overall very good condition with some occasional minor surface scratches, discolorations and light tarnish consistent with age and gentle handling. The interior with traces of perfume and light soiling. The underside of the bottle is applied with a Doros Collection accession number.

Catalogue Note:
Silver Finish: The Work of Ubaldo Vitali

My parents purchased this lot in 1985 and the preceding lot three years later. Both are superb examples and were proudly displayed, but they were also a constant source of minor annoyance to my father. Each piece has a notched, short rim, the notches indicating that a silver collar, attached to the object with plaster of Paris, and cap were supposed to have been added, probably by Tiffany & Company, at the time of manufacture. So, although beautiful in their own right, Jay was bothered that the objects were incomplete.

I suggested that the silversmith Ubaldo Vitali (b. 1944) be commissioned to create the missing components. He lived and worked in the neighboring town of Maplewood and I was familiar with his conservation skills as well as his ability to fashion beautiful silver objects of his own design. Since that time, his works have been acquired by the Newark Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Yale University Art Gallery. Perhaps even more impressively, he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant in 2011.

The two pieces were brought to his workroom around 1990, along with illustrations of the type of silver mounts Tiffany & Company created for similar pieces. My father, however, gave Ubaldo the liberty to develop his own designs that would echo, but not imitate, those from 90 years earlier. It took Vitali almost 4 years to complete the commission, but the final results were certainly worth the wait.

- PD

Provenance:
Christie’s New York, December 14, 1985, lot 306