The interiors and exteriors of the Frederick Ayer Mansion at 395 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts (1900) are rare survivals of designs by Louis Comfort Tiffany remaining in situ. A master of surface ornament and color, Tiffany helped pioneer the interior design profession and revolutionize the art of stained glass. He was the "most fashionable purveyor of taste" during America's Gilded Age at the turn of the twentieth century. His influence extended beyond the American home, to every type of public and private institution. It also extended well beyond the limits of the United States to Europe where he was praised for his "dumbfounding versatility." The Ayer Mansion is one of only three known domestic Tiffany interiors to remain in situ, the others being the Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) House in Hartford, Connecticut (1881) and the Pierre Ferry House in Seattle, Washington (1903 – 1906).
The Ayer Mansion is also unusual in Tiffany's work in that it incorporates mosaics on its exterior as well as interior. While Tiffany is known to have designed dozens of interiors during his 50 year career, exterior ornamentation was rarely included as part of his design program. His own house, Laurelton Hall, designed by the artist in its totality, was an exception. Laurelton Hall was burned to the ground in the 1950s, but individual components survive at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Tiffany's innovations in glass making and interior design brought him international recognition during his lifetime. Exhibits of his interiors of glass and mosaic won frequent awards at International Expositions in the 1890s through the 1910s, and his works were distributed to European clientele by the Parisian dealer Siegfried Bing. As a result, according to Tiffany expert Alice Frelinghuysen, "his work was widely known and critiqued with acclaim throughout America and around the world." An exhibit of his work in Cologne, Germany, in 1999 attests to his worldwide acclaim to this very day.
The Ayer Mansion exemplifies several of Tiffany's innovative contributions to American design history. The entrance hall and exterior façade comprise a coherent design whole envisioned by the master interior designer. This continuity of design, which resulted in a total, unified work of art was a concept that "Tiffany heralded in America." Within the composition, stained glass and mosaic surfaces were created using convention-breaking techniques and materials pioneered decades before by Tiffany. For example, the interior includes opalescent glass, semitransparent glass backed by metallic foil and "plated" surfaces.
Tiffany helped establish the interior design profession and its new all-encompassing approach, but her also established and popularized new tastes for interior spaces. Influenced by his own extended travel, he and his Associated Artists created in the 1870s widespread interest in Orientalism: the art of Persia, India, Byzantium, Japan and North Africa. The art of the East remained a dominant influence in his designs throughout his career. At the Aye Mansion, austere architectural forms and smooth surfaces provide a foil for the rich Near Eastern patterns and color combinations and for his experimental glass.