This is yet another recommendation from my sister, one that
combines my love of historical fiction with my love of Tiffany glass. I had no idea that until recently it was
thought that Louis Comfort Tiffany designed all of his famous glassworks. I had always assumed that he had other people
designing for him and that he took credit, like many before have done. Anyways, in this case it has recently come to
light that a woman named Clara Driscoll was responsible for many of the most
famous Tiffany glass designs. Vreeland
perused the many letters that remain of Driscoll’s and realized that this woman
stood apart from many others of her time.
The novel begins with Clara returning to work at Tiffany’s
after her husband’s death. She was
forced to leave the company and the work that she loved because of Tiffany’s
policy against employing unmarried women.
This rule becomes a driving force in her relationships with men. While she does find a few that she considers
she always debates the merits of the relationship against the joy she gets from
her profession.
As for her work, Clara love designing and working on the
beautiful glass pieces that she knows her department will not get credit
for. She is constantly fighting for her
and her girls—to get equal pay, better working conditions, commissions,
etc. She meets resistance in the forms
of male unions that won’t allow women to join, accountants, and Mr. Tiffany
himself with whom she has a special, but professional bond.
While I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I hoped, it was
still pretty interesting. I felt that
the relationship between Clara and Mr. Tiffany was well written, but the rest
of the characters suffered. Vreeland
provided enough details to help understand the time, place, and frustrations of
the time. This ultimately created a nice
diversion, but not a novel that I will seek out again.
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