The silver jewel encrusted Viking- themed vase designed by George Paulding Farnham for Tiffany & Co., especially for the Pan American Exposition of 1901 in Buffalo, New York stands alone in a centrally located glass case in the American Silver Gallery located on the fourth floor of the Dallas Museum of Art in Dallas, Texas. Standing only eight inches high, the intricate details of the vase draws the viewers in and keeps them there as the eye runs over the delicate scroll and serpentine patterns of silverwork, colorful enameling and strategically placed garnets and citrines. Engraved, chased, and etched, the interlacing Celtic-like scrolls and knots wrap delicately and symmetrically around the vessel. Serpentine handles flank the widest and uppermost portion of the vase while twin stylized bird head figures frame the rim. In the center of the vase …show more content…
More than likely, it was not intended for home use or decoration, but was created to attract attention and to be admired, showing what was humanly possible within the jewelry design of the time. It was created to distinguish its designers and to win awards, and that it did. Kevin W. Tucker, The Margot B. Perot Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the Dallas Museum of Art, declared, “This exceptionally powerful yet diminutive vase reflects the great expertise of Tiffany & Company’s designers and silversmiths in fashioning precious and highly refined objects reflective of a variety of artistic influences popular at the turn of the twentieth century – and at a level of quality easily rivaling and often surpassing the efforts of their European contemporaries.” Today, Farnham’s Viking themed vase is exactly where it belongs, in a glass case of its own, in the most perfect light, for all to