This is one of the extremely rare special edition copies of The Art Work of Louis Comfort Tiffany, the first biography of Louis Comfort Tiffany published in early 1914.
In 1913, on the verge of his retirement from Tiffany Studios, Tiffany asked art historian and New York Times art critic Charles de Kay to collaborate on the production of a biography. Underwritten by Tiffany, the volume was privately published by Doubleday Page and Company in New York; a limited run of 492 copies were printed on Japan paper. Eight in-depth chapters discuss the various facets of Tiffany’s career, illustrated by 21 tipped-in color plates and 42 photogravures of a selection of what Tiffany and de Kay saw to be his most important works.
Only ten luxuriously bound special edition copies printed on parchment were produced for private distribution. This example showcases the gold embossed decorative papîer-maché cover designed by Tiffany with a more complex binding than the standard editions featuring gilt bronze clasps. Tiffany adapted this decoration for a three-paneled screen now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2002.429a–c).
This example is protected by its original custom made velvet-lined case, also designed by Tiffany.
One of the other 9 special edition copies, given by Tiffany to his daughter Mary Woodbridge Tiffany, descended through the family before it was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2011.431a-c).
Book:
Length: 12 ⅝ inches (32.1 cm)
Width: 10 inches (25.4 cm)
Depth: 3 inches (8.6 cm)
Box:
Length: 13 ½ inches (34.3 cm)
Width: 11 inches (28 cm)
Depth: 3 ⅜ inches (8.6 cm)
References:
Hugh F. McKean, The "Lost" Treasures of Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York, 1980, p. 8
Robert Koch, Louis C. Tiffany: The Collected Works of Robert Koch, Atglen, 2001, p. 146
Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall: An Artist's Country Estate, New York, 2006, p. 106