Lot Essay
Louis Comfort Tiffany designed fewer than twenty known objects in silver. This scarcity of Tiffany's work in silver is underscored by the fact that the liquidation sale of Tiffany Studio's stock in 1936 contained not a single piece of solid silver. The auction of 1,726 lots contained bronze, Favrile glass, stained glass, silver-plated wares, and oriental carpets (see catalogue, Products of Louis Comfort Tiffany Studios on the Premises, 46 West 23rd Street, New York, Joseph and Jacobson Auctioneers, May 18-23, 1936).
The only other silver tea service by Louis Comfort Tiffany known is the one he designed for his own use at Laurelton Hall, the highly publicized mansion of his own design in Oyster Bay, completed in 1905. Made between 1902 and 1904, the four-piece tea service was the only silver in the 1946 auction of the contents of Laurelton Hall (see catalogue, Favrile Glass...Objects of Art, Paintings, Antiques, Decorations, Belonging to the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, Removed from Laurelton Hall, Parke-Bernet Galleries, September 24-28, 1946, p. 199). Three pieces of this service are now in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, illustrated in Leslie Greene Bowman, Virtue in Design, L.A.C.M.A., 1990, p. 124. The service originally had a water kettle, and the four pieces together were displayed in the dining room at Laurelton Hall, where they were photographed with a copper tray, illustrated in Robert Koch, Louis C. Tiffany, Rebel in Glass, 1964, and in Charles H. Carpenter, Jr., "The Silver of Louis Comfort Tiffany," op.cit., fig. 1, p. 392.
Both the Laurelton Hall tea service and the present example were probably made by Julia Munson, talented metalworker and supervisor at Tiffany Studios. The visible hammer marks and high quality chasing on both services indicate her hand. At the time the Whitney tea service was made, Louis Comfort Tiffany was vice-president and artistic director of Tiffany & Co., which would explain the combination of Tiffany & Co. trays with this service.
The only other silver tea service by Louis Comfort Tiffany known is the one he designed for his own use at Laurelton Hall, the highly publicized mansion of his own design in Oyster Bay, completed in 1905. Made between 1902 and 1904, the four-piece tea service was the only silver in the 1946 auction of the contents of Laurelton Hall (see catalogue, Favrile Glass...Objects of Art, Paintings, Antiques, Decorations, Belonging to the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, Removed from Laurelton Hall, Parke-Bernet Galleries, September 24-28, 1946, p. 199). Three pieces of this service are now in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, illustrated in Leslie Greene Bowman, Virtue in Design, L.A.C.M.A., 1990, p. 124. The service originally had a water kettle, and the four pieces together were displayed in the dining room at Laurelton Hall, where they were photographed with a copper tray, illustrated in Robert Koch, Louis C. Tiffany, Rebel in Glass, 1964, and in Charles H. Carpenter, Jr., "The Silver of Louis Comfort Tiffany," op.cit., fig. 1, p. 392.
Both the Laurelton Hall tea service and the present example were probably made by Julia Munson, talented metalworker and supervisor at Tiffany Studios. The visible hammer marks and high quality chasing on both services indicate her hand. At the time the Whitney tea service was made, Louis Comfort Tiffany was vice-president and artistic director of Tiffany & Co., which would explain the combination of Tiffany & Co. trays with this service.