Noon At Tiffany’s March 5, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Art & Photography, Books & Movies, Fiction.comments closed
Noon at Tiffany’s, by Echo Heron, gives readers a chance to experience life in New York City at the turn of the last century ~ when horse drawn carriages gave way to horseless carriages and women traded bustles for bicycles.
Through round robin letters written to and from Clara Wolcott (Driscoll Booth) between 1888 to 1941, we see the challenges faced by young women who wanted more from life than marriage and motherhood.
Echo Heron blends fact and fiction to highlight the talented designer and artisans who created unique handmade Tiffany lamps during the Art Nouveau period.
Although Louis Comfort Tiffany claimed the designs as his own, history has revealed Clara Wolcott Driscoll to be the master designer behind the most creative and valuable leaded glass lamps produced by Tiffany Studios.
As one of the highest paid women of her era, Clara Driscoll labored long hours in Tiffany’s studios to design and create gorgeous stained glass lamps featuring Daffodils and stained glass pendants featuring incandescent Dragonflies:
Clara Driscoll in a workroom with another Tiffany employee (1901)
Source: Wikipedia (in Public Domain)
Clara’s story, told through her letters, reveals the monumental arrogance of Louis Comfort Tiffany and her spirited challenges to that arrogance.
Determined to live life without societal shackles, Clara sheds convention, dons a bicycle suit (with no corset!), and learns to ride. During summer weekends at the Jersey Shore in Point Pleasant, she learns to swim and sail~ pursuits not embraced by many women of the day.
You go, girl!
From the back cover of Noon at Tiffany’s:
In the summer of 1888, Clara Wolcott, a daring young artist from Ohio, walked into Louis Tiffany’s Manhattan office to interview for a job as a designer. For the next 21 years, her pivotal role in his multi-million dollar empire remained one of Tiffany’s most closely guarded secrets ~ a secret that when revealed 118 years later sent the International Art World into a tailspin.
Basing her story on a recently discovered cache of letters written between 1888 and 1944, New York Times bestselling author Echo Heron artfully blends fact with fiction to draw the reader into the remarkable life of one of America’s most prolific and extraordinary artists: Clara Wolcott Driscoll, the hidden genius behind the iconic Tiffany lamps.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Spirit Lights The Way 