By Ben Marks — How would a priceless collection of Tiffany glass survive a catastrophic earthquake? Takeo Horiuchi didn't want to find out. As one of the world's most respected and passionate collectors of Louis Comfort Tiffany glass, lamps, and other decorative objects, Horiuchi learned last year that the new museum he was planning to build for his incomparable collection of fragile masterpieces was located in a highly active earthquake zone. Fearful that almost 20 years of effort might be turned into...

Tiffany Lamp Appraiser Arlie Sulka: An Interview with Collectors Weekly

By Maribeth Keane and Brad Quinn — When I was an art history major in college, there were very few programs that had a concentration in the decorative arts. So when I graduated, I thought I’d be working with paintings, sculpture, and prints.In 1979, when I was working at Plaza Auction Galleries, a small auction house in New York, I met Lillian Nassau, and she asked me to work for her. I’ve learned almost everything I know on the job. I ended up in the Art Nouveau department at Plaza because that’s where the opening was. I...

U.S. Studio Art Glass, Before and After Chihuly

By Maribeth Keane and Brad Quinn — In 2010, we spoke with Seattle-based artist Benjamin Moore (1952-2021) about the origins of the American Studio Art Glass Movement and how it benefited from the combination of traditional European techniques and an American attitude of collaboration and experimentation. : Marvin Lipofsky introduced me to glass while I was getting a bachelor’s degree in ceramics at the California College of Arts in Oakland, California. One day I saw a poster there for the Pilchuck Glass School,...

Loetz Glass Collector Eddy Scheepers on the Pride of Bohemia

By Maribeth Keane — Loetz was a Bohemian company. It was a factory; and the region’s biggest and best glass manufacturer. There were other contemporaries like Kralik, Rindskopf, and Pallme-Konig that produced glass in the same style, made almost in the same way, but not always with the same quality. The glass is covered with vapors of metals, like silver, for instance. Most Loetz glass was not free-blown like most people think; ninety-five percent was blown in molds. Some people think some of the glasses...

Reyne Haines Spills on Tiffany, Chihuly, and Loetz

By Dave Margulius — I started becoming interested in art glass when I moved from Texas to New York, and wanted to decorate my apartment with New York-type things, things I had never seen in Houston. I grew up in Texas, which is a relatively new state. While there’s a lot of money in Texas, we didn’t have a Tiffany’s, we didn’t have a Marshall Field’s, or companies that sold Baccarat or Lalique or Tiffany or Steuben or any of the bigger makers. Nobody in my family really collected anything, and I wouldn’t say...