MAKER'S MARK OF TIFFANY & CO., NEW YORK, CIRCA 1880

This pitcher is one of Tiffany's most important designs in the Japanesque style. Designed by Edward C. Moore, the first pitcher known of this model was exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, 1878. The natural motifs, the incorporation of the ornament into the form, and the painterly use of colored alloys all combine to make the pitcher a masterpiece of the Japanesque style. A woodcut of the pitcher appears in a contemporary review of Tiffany's exhibit by French critic Emile Bergerat, "Les chefs d'oeuvre d'art l'Exposition Universelle," Paris, 1878, vol. I, p. 121 (see illustration, p. 88). Other pitchers of this pattern are in the collections of the Muse d'Orsay, Paris, and the Art Institute of Chicago. The manufacturing cost for hammering and mounting the pitcher with alloys was $92.00.

cf. Christie's New York, June 18, 1998, lot 75, and June 19, 1996, lot 50 for an identical pitcher.