Tiffany in Winter Park

We went from lunch to the Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, today a suburb north of Orlando. This museum has the world's largest collection of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany including jewelry, pottery, painting, art glass, leaded glass windows, lamps, and the chapel interior he designed for the 1898 World's Exposition in Chicago.

Charles Hosmer Morse was a 19th century industrialist one of the founders of Winter Park. His granddaughter established the museum in 1942 and named it for him. I have no photos because photography is forbidden, but they provide catalogs in every room of the museum so I have a lot of reference material. And this website has lots of images of Tiffany's art.

Louis C. Tiffany's father, Charles Lewis Tiffany, established Tiffany & Co. in New York City and Louis was brought up in the business. He established his own company, Tiffany Glass, in 1885.

One bit of history of interest: in 1885 Tiffany decorated the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine, which, you may recall, was built by Henry Flagler. (See March 31st post.)

It was a feast for the eyes. Particularly the chapel that has been restored and integrated into the museum. The chapel was designed by Louis Tiffany as the centerpiece of a Tiffany exhibit at the Chicago World's Fair. It is glass mosaic surfaces and stained glass windows, with a 10 foot by 8 foot electrolier (remember Thomas Edison's winter home in Fort Myers?) in the shape of a cross. The alter is white-glass mosaic. One of the stained glass windows has more than 10,000 separate pieces of glass. At one time sales to churches was the bulk of the Tiffany business and this was done as a sales exhibit. Wow!!