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Lot Essay
This model was one of Tiffany & Co.'s most successful creations in the Japanesque style. It was designed by Edward C. Moore, Tiffany's director, for the 1878 Exposition Universelle in Paris. Tiffany's exhibit of Japanesque-style silver won worldwide acclaim at the Exposition, as well as the grand prix for silverware. Moore's genius lay in the combination of colorful metallic alloys with organic forms and ornament derived from nature.
A teapot and another teapot and cream jug of this pattern sold in these Rooms, respectively, 19 January 2012, lot 55 and 18-19 January 2002, lots 258-259. Another three-piece service sold Sotheby's, New York, 22 June 2004, lots 124-126.
Examples of this model with a matte (but not hammered) finish include a three-piece service, sold in these Rooms, 16 June 1999, lot 52, and a teapot in the collection of the New-York Historical Society that is illustrated in John Loring, Magnificent Tiffany Silver, 2001, p. 59.
William M. Lent (b. 1818) married Frances E. LaForge of New York in 1857 and moved to California in the 1860s where he had speculative interests. By 1880, when this tea service was acquired, Lent was again living in New York City at 566 Fifth Avenue. He was recorded as the Chairman of West Shore stockholders in 1885. The service presumably descended to Lent's son, Eugene (b. 1863 in San Francisco), who married Bertha Welch in 1900. Their daughter, Frances W. Lent (b. 1901) married Hugh B. Porter and they had two children named William L. Porter (d. 2006) and Jess (Porter) Cooley (d. 2010).
A teapot and another teapot and cream jug of this pattern sold in these Rooms, respectively, 19 January 2012, lot 55 and 18-19 January 2002, lots 258-259. Another three-piece service sold Sotheby's, New York, 22 June 2004, lots 124-126.
Examples of this model with a matte (but not hammered) finish include a three-piece service, sold in these Rooms, 16 June 1999, lot 52, and a teapot in the collection of the New-York Historical Society that is illustrated in John Loring, Magnificent Tiffany Silver, 2001, p. 59.
William M. Lent (b. 1818) married Frances E. LaForge of New York in 1857 and moved to California in the 1860s where he had speculative interests. By 1880, when this tea service was acquired, Lent was again living in New York City at 566 Fifth Avenue. He was recorded as the Chairman of West Shore stockholders in 1885. The service presumably descended to Lent's son, Eugene (b. 1863 in San Francisco), who married Bertha Welch in 1900. Their daughter, Frances W. Lent (b. 1901) married Hugh B. Porter and they had two children named William L. Porter (d. 2006) and Jess (Porter) Cooley (d. 2010).