Working in Tiffany's Glassmaking Factory

In the early 1890s, Louis Comfort Tiffany established a large glassmaking factory in Corona (Queens), New York[1]. Here, he sought to unite fine craftsmanship and techniques of mass production to produce stained glass windows and lamps that were not merely products for eager consumers, but original works of art. As turn-of-the-century factory workers, Tiffany’s employees shared many of the same experiences as other American workers in the face of increasing industrialization, but their experience was also uniquely shaped by Tiffany’s artistic vision.

Tiffany organized his vast workshop using modern technological methods in order to enable his workers to be as productive as possible. The glassmaking itself was supervised by a chemist, called a “glass technologist”. Glassworkers were arranged into “shops” each of which consisted of a master craftsman, called a gaffer[2], and a team of assistants with precise roles, including highly skilled jobs such as mixer or blower, and more menial unskilled labor that might be performed by boys. Glassmaking, by necessity, was hot, dirty, and potentially dangerous work. Once the glass itself was finished, workers labored in strictly defined roles along an assembly line. The production line for stained glass windows, for example, progressed from designers to cartoonists, followed by cutters, painters, and glaziers. This specialization allowed the workers, together, to create a maximum amount of glass, and the result was that several thousand objects (lamps, windows, other pieces) were produced each year.

While Tiffany pushed his workers to be productive, he was just as deeply concerned that each item be a distinctive work of art. In glassmaking, Tiffany was obsessed with innovation. His glass sometimes contained bubbles or varying thicknesses as a result of his experimentation, but Tiffany did not frown upon these imperfections. Instead, he viewed them as evidence that each piece of glass was unique and original. Many of his assembly-line workers were not only highly skilled, but formally trained artists. Most of the jobs that they performed significantly limited their own artistic expression; however, lamp designers were permitted to choose their own glass colors and textures while following the predetermined lamp design. A few workers were able to create their own designs after training personally with Tiffany in order to absorb his ideas about art and beauty. Among all of his workers, Tiffany was considered uncompromising and obsessed with perfection in pursuit of great art.

Tiffany was willing to pay well for quality workmanship, and significantly, some of his most successful workers were women. At first, Tiffany hired young boys as apprentices, but he quickly fired them when they staged a strike. In their place, Tiffany hired young women from local art schools. Mrs. Clara Driscoll, designer of the popular dragonfly lamp, became not only his top lamp designer but one of the highest paid women in the world when she received $10,000 a year for her services in 1904. By comparison Tiffany’s shop foremen were making $21 a week (a bit more than 1/10 her salary) and glass artisans were earning $3 a day at about the same time. All of these salaries outpaced the typical wages of unskilled men and women at other glassmaking factories, which might range from 10 to 20 cents per hour. However, the glassmaking industry, compared with many other industries at the turn of the century, was relatively reasonable in terms of pay as well as hours and working conditions. Many glassworkers, including those working for Tiffany and others, were not only highly skilled but organized into a union which protected their interests.[3] Glassmaking also provided opportunities for girls and women beyond Tiffany’s factory. They were considered to be sharper-eyed and more careful than their male colleagues, and therefore they found opportunities inspecting, sorting, and packing finished glass items. Many of Tiffany’s workers were laboring in necessarily hot, dusty conditions and repeating constant monotonous tasks, and all were pushed by a strict and exacting employer. However, Tiffany’s workers were the best in their industry and they were some of the more fortunate of workers of the time.

[1] As Louis Comfort Tiffany’s business evolved, its name, its products, and the buildings where the workshop were housed changed. This essay discusses conditions for his glassmakers in Queens at the turn of the century in general terms.

[2] For definitions of words in bold print, please see the Glass Glossary.

[3] Tiffany’s glassworkers were members of the American Flint Glass Workers Union, which was established in 1878. See http://www.glasslinks.com/trivia/afgwu.htm for more information.