MARK OF TIFFANY & CO., NEW YORK, 1884-1891

This tray is engraved with the initials of John Holme Ballantine (1834-1895) and his wife, Jeanette. John Ballantine was the son of the founder of the renowned Newark brewer and became president of the company in 1883. In 1885 he commissioned the architect, George Edward Harney (1840-1924), to build a Renaissance, Georgian and Romanesque style mansion overlooking Newark's Washington Park. The Newark Museum bought the twenty-seven-room house in 1937, restored it, and opened it to the public as a house museum in 1976. The mansion was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985.