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The glowing glass road to NYC
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
POMFRET --- The connection between Louis Comfort Tiffany's New York City and the town of Pomfret is lined with opalescent glass and marble. The Christ Church of Pomfret is home for Tiffany stained glass windows and a magnificent and rare iridescent baptism fount. And that font was lent to the Museum of Biblical Art in New York City this week, for a three-month exhibit titled "Tiffany's Liturgical Art."
Linda Goodwin, who took part in the project, said the church got a call from Tiffany experts who were in the area, asking about having a look at the Tiffany work in the church. Not only were the windows early Tiffany work, but the baptism font was also a Tiffany work of art. "We were very excited to hear that," she said.
Naturally the windows were not going to be moved to the exhibit site in New York City, but experts asked about the baptism font being lent to the museum. The font was appraised and it was determined that the two steps, the pedestal and the bowl it could be moved. Church members are "very excited" she said and many are planning to visit their own font in New York at the exhibit. The gold cap will remain behind in Pomfret.
The Christ Church's cornerstone was laid in 1882 and it was consecrated in 1883, Goodwin said. The Tiffany windows were there from the beginning. The church was built as a memorial to the Vinton family, so all the windows were related to that family. The font was added later, in the early 1900s, and was dedicated to George and Emma Bradley.
Interestingly, it's not an unfamiliar road from northeast Connecticut to New York City. Goodwin said that Louis Comfort Tiffany's grandfather lived in the northeast corner, in Brooklyn, and was a mill owner. Tiffany's father ran the store for his father and then moved to New York City and opened his own business and his son, Louis Comfort Tiffany was born there.