The Abalone Desk Set was one of Tiffany Studios’ most popular Desk Set patterns and was in regular production for several decades, from around 1906 through the late 1920s (the Abalone Set was one of the few Desk Sets still listed in the company’s 1929 Price List).
Tiffany Studios produced a wide range of desk accessories as part of the Abalone set, including the Paper Rack offered here. The front-facing flat planes feature a dense decorative motif of stylized grape clusters, each grape formed by an inset disc of naturally iridescent abalone shell. Around these grape clusters and along the sides and verso, linear channels interspersed with coiling motifs representing grapevines are filled with vitreous enamel ranging from deep green along the outer edges to reddish-gold along the center.
Louis Comfort Tiffany was fascinated by naturally occurring iridescence from the outset of his career as an artist, incorporating materials like abalone shell into some of his earliest and most innovative designs. The Abalone Desk Set was an effort to distill Tiffany’s vision for the commercial market.
Height: 5 ½ inches (14 cm)
Width: 9 ½ inches (24.1 cm)
Depth: 2 ¾ inches (7 cm)