Louis Comfort Tiffany was one of the great masters of American arts and crafts design. With the resources of Tiffany & Co., the jewelry firm founded by his father Charles Lewis Tiffany, and led by his own less commercial and more artistic aesthetic, Tiffany combined gemstones and metalwork in fresh and exciting ways. Working closely with the company’s gemologist George Frederick Kunz, Tiffany often created garland frames to highlight rare and exceptional gemstones like this one. Black opals were first discovered at Lightning Ridge in New South Wales, Australia in 1877, and this is a particularly large and spectacular example. Suspended from a gold chain, the opal is entwined by a meandering gold vine; the open back reveals the matrix rock the gem was found in.