For 125 years, the Boyd Family Memorial Window has filtered the light inside the Second Congregational Church in Winsted, Connecticut. This June, the two-panel Tiffany Studios masterwork, titled *The Falls*, will move from its architectural home to Christie’s New York, where it is expected to sell for up to $2 million. Commissioned in 1898 by Ellen Wright Boyd, the piece has remained in situ since its installation, serving as a rare example of the studio’s secular, landscape-driven ecclesiastical work.
The composition is notable for its departure from traditional religious imagery. It depicts a lush, sunset-soaked landscape where a central waterfall cascades toward the viewer, framed by irises and lilies. While Tiffany windows often favor floral or figurative motifs, the waterfall is a rare subject in the firm’s catalog. The work is further elevated by a jeweled medallion at its apex, a hallmark of the studio’s late 19th-century theatricality and technical ambition.
The sale reflects a broader trend in which significant architectural glass is being decoupled from its original settings. As maintenance costs rise for historic buildings, institutions are increasingly looking to their collections to fund operations and programming. This transition, while shifting the context of the art, often ensures the long-term preservation of these fragile works within the controlled environments of private collections or museums—following the path of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2023 acquisition of Tiffany’s *Garden Landscape*.
With reporting from ARTnews.
Source · ARTnews
