The Haworth Art Gallery is a public art gallery located in Accrington

Accrington

Accrington is a town in Lancashire, within the borough of Hyndburn. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, north of Manchester city centre and is situated on the mostly culverted River Hyndburn...

, Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

, northwest England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, and is the home of the largest collection in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 of Tiffany glass

Tiffany glass

Tiffany glass refers to the many and varied types of glass developed and produced from 1878 to 1933 at the Tiffany Studios, by Louis Comfort Tiffany....

 from the studio of Louis Comfort Tiffany

Louis Comfort Tiffany

Louis Comfort Tiffany was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art Nouveau  and Aesthetic movements...

. The museum, an Tudor

Tudor architecture

The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...

-style house which was originally built in 1909 to be the home of William Haworth, a manufacturer of textiles, was bequeathed in 1920 to the people of Accrington, and stands in nine acres of parkland on the south side of Accrington Town Centre.

The Haworth's Tiffany collection is the largest outside the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, with almost every type of Tiffany glass, including 140 pieces, including Favrile glass tiles, jewels, samples and mosaic

Mosaic

Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...

s. It was the gift of Joseph Briggs, a design apprentice who left Accrington at 17 to emigrate to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, where he worked for Tiffany for 40 years from about 1892. In 1933, he sent his Tiffany collection home.

The collection is on permanent public display in four themed-rooms: 'Tiffany and Interior Design', 'Tiffany and the Past', 'Tiffany and Nature', and 'The Tiffany Phenomenon'. Notable in the Gallery's Tiffany collection are over 70 vase

Vase

The vase is an open container, often used to hold cut flowers. It can be made from a number of materials including ceramics and glass. The vase is often decorated and thus used to extend the beauty of its contents....

s, including a group of 'Millefiore Paperweight' and 'Intaglio

Intaglio

Intaglio are techniques in art in which an image is created by cutting, carving or engraving into a flat surface and may also refer to objects made using these techniques:* Intaglio , a group of printmaking techniques with an incised image...

' or cut-glass examples, 'flowerform' vases, vases shaped like vegetables, 'Cypriote' and 'Tel-El-Armana' vases inspired by Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 and Egyptian

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

 examples. There are also samples relating to decorative schemes Briggs was involved with, and his 'Sulpher-Crested Cockatoos' mosaic.

The museum also has a collection of mainly 19th century oil painting

Oil painting

Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...

s and watercolours including works by Frederic, Lord Leighton, Claude Joseph Vernet, John Frederick Herring and others.