LOUIS C. TIFFANY AND ASSOCIATED ARTISTS, FOR THE GEORGE KEMP HOUSE, 720 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, CIRCA 1880

Louis Comfort Tiffany's interest in the design of interiors is well documented. His first interior was for his own home in the Bella Apartments, New York (1878), and it clearly demonstrates his love of rich surface ornament and the admiration he held for the art of different cultures, which he had encountered in his extensive travels. In 1879 he and contemporaries Samuel Colman, Lockwood de Forest and Candace Wheeler joined forces as Louis C. Tiffany and Associated Artists. Many of the interior designs undertaken by their firm are documented in Artistic Houses. The eclectic blend of furniture, textiles and wallpapers and the exotic furnishings in metal, glass and ceramics were hallmarks which distinguished their work and brought them a number of prestigious commissions before their short-lived but remarkable association ended in 1883.

This chair model is illustrated in Arnold Lewis et al, The Opulent Interiors of the Gilded Age, All 203 Photographs from "Artistic Houses", 1987, p.133, figure 140, showing the Salon of the George Kemp house.