More about Paulding Farnham, Tiffany's designer extraordinaire

Magazine Antiques, March, 1999 by Janet Zapata

In 1991 ANTIQUES published my two-part article on the jewelry and silver masterpieces of Paulding Farnham, whose designs catapulted Tiffany and Company into international prominence in the late 1800s.(1) It was my hope that those articles would bring to light more personal information about this talented but little known designer, and they did so by bringing me into contact with his granddaughter Sheila Tinsley, who generously allowed me access to letters and other family material about her grandfather, and with David Wilkins, who led me to a group of marine paintings Farnham executed in the 1920s. These leads, together with other information I unearthed in periodicals and elsewhere, have permitted me to fashion a more detailed portrait of Farnham the man - his family, his interests, and his more personal artistic output.

George Paulding Farnham was born in 1859 to a well-established family with important ancestral ties on both his mother's and his father's side [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 2 OMITTED]. His association with Tiffany and Company, as recorded in my previous articles, probably began under the aegis of his uncle Charles T. Cook (1835-1907), the company's vice president, and he studied under Edward C. Moore (1827-1891), the director of the silverware division. At the latter's so-called Tiffany School, he learned to draw directly from specimens brought to the design studio, and his interest in three-dimensional representation led him naturally to modeling and sculpture. Piecing together his evolution as an artist, it is possible to see that it was through his grasp of proportions and balance in sculpting that Farnham was able to excel at creating jewelry and silver designs. His talents were clearly recognized at Tiffany's, where, records show, he was well paid and was appointed director of the jewelry department in the 1890s and then of the silverware division at the end of the decade.(2) About the same time he also became overall art director.

Interestingly, however, Farnham's remarkable achievements as a designer have been largely erased from Tiffany and Company's archives. One can only surmise that perhaps a conflict arose between him and Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), who became second vice president of the firm on the death of his father in 1902 and took over some of the art direction before assuming the full duties of art director in 1907. In that year Farnham began to sell his stock in the company and on June 2, 1908, he tendered his resignation. Although he and Tiffany were both genial men, it may be that they were unable to reconcile their different artistic visions within the firm.

Farnham was married to Sally (Sarah) Welles James on New Year's eve 1896 at Saint John's Episcopal Church in the bride's hometown of Ogdensburg, New York. She wore white satin trimmed with point Duchesse lace and a veil of the same material held in place by a diamond and ruby crescent brooch, designed especially for her by Farnham.(3) A ruby was set into the center, with heart-shaped diamonds decreasing in size to the points. Although crescent brooches were popular in the 1890s, it seems that the shape had more personal significance for Farnham and his bride, symbolizing the crescent moon on the night they were engaged. To remember this evening Farnham had a champagne bottle set into a silver mounting bearing the inscription "Midnight and the ??? was beaming" (Pl. VI).

On their return from their honeymoon, the couple initially split their time between an apartment in New York City and Paulding's mother's house in Great Neck, New York. On her death in 1897 Paulding inherited this property, where he enjoyed yachting and other activities with his family and friends. Here he maintained an extensive library, hung the walls with his collection of pressed flowers, and displayed his large collection of American Indian artifacts [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED]. He most likely drew inspiration for his jewelry from the pressed flowers and from the Indian baskets, which influenced the silver vessels he designed for the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris.(4) A watercolor view of the house from the water appears in the middle of a rambling letter from Farnham to his wife (Pl. III), which he endearingly signed "Your Paint Pot."

Farnham's earliest known attempt at sculpture was an 1894 bronze bust (now lost) of Charles Lewis Tiffany (1812-1902), the founder of Tiffany's. According to an article in the Jeweler's Weekly, "the reproduction of the kindly expression of Mr. Tiffany's eyes and face is perfect, and the general excellence of the likeness was a matter of favorable comment."(5) When it was displayed at the New York Jewelers' Association dinner at Delmonico's, the Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review called the bust "a fine work in modeling and a fitting tribute to the veteran jeweler."(6)

The next year Farnham exhibited Phoenecia and the Wind at the annual exhibition of the National Sculpture Society in New York City (see Fig. 4). Eight and one-half feet tall, the statue was intended as a model for a yachting trophy, meant