Firescreen
John La Farge American
According to Gilder family tradition, La Farge created this window as a tenth-wedding anniversary gift for his close friends, painter Helena de Kay and her husband, Richard Watson Gilder, editor of The Century Magazine. It is composed of opalescent glass and delicate glass "jewels," characteristics of La Farge’s early designs, and features a marriage wreath encircling the couple’s initials and the year 1874. The window was originally installed in the Gilders’ home at 103 East Fifteenth Street, a popular gathering place for artists and writers. When the family moved around 1888, the panel was detached from its architectural setting and set into an ornamental brass frame, possibly of Stanford White’s design, to form a freestanding fire screen.