Some Tiffany Mosaics

From a gracious collector in Florida, USA

Doubting Thomas

The Artist name is Joseph Briggs. It is signed and dated in the glass 1901 in the top left corner. The image size is 18 x 24 inches. It was made out of stained glass, at the Tiffany studio in New York. Another interesting fact about Thomas the fingernails have foil behind the glass to enhance the realty of a nail.

This is Thomas is the apostle. If you recall from the bible Thomas told Jesus, "I will not believe you have risen from the dead until you show me the nail holes in your hands from the cross", therefore his nickname Doubting Thomas. In the mosaic, Jesus is in the process of showing Thomas the nail holes in his hand, you can even see a slight tint of blood.

This one was used as a trivet in the early 1900's. As you can see it depicts a dragonfly, which is very meaningful to the Japanese. Tiffany loved Japanese subject matter.

A trivet is device in old days to place something hot on, until it cools. This one is called a whimsey. A whimsey is a piece made by a craftsman, and taken home for his personal use not for sale. The maker of this trivet, Edwin Hayward, was worker at Tiffany Studios.

It is amazing how photo-realistic these mosaics can be. Remember that this was done in 1850. I sharpened the close-up on the right so you can see the tiles. The dealer it was bought from, said it is Italian.