Lot 318
318
A FINE AND RARE PARCEL-GILT SILVER JAPANESQUE DESSERT SERVICE
A FINE AND RARE PARCEL-GILT SILVER JAPANESQUE DESSERT SERVICE

MAKER'S MARK OF TIFFANY & CO., NEW YORK, CIRCA 1878

Details
A FINE AND RARE PARCEL-GILT SILVER JAPANESQUE DESSERT SERVICE
Maker's mark of Tiffany & Co., New York, circa 1878
Japanese pattern, each piece engraved with different Japanesque motifs and gilt in two colors, comprising:
Eighteen dessert spoons
Eighteen dessert forks
Eighteen dessert knives with silver-gilt blades
Twelve coffee spoons
97oz. 10dwt. (3032gr.)
each struck with London import marks for 1956-57 and with French control marks for 1864-1893 (66)

Lot Essay

Thought to be Tiffany's first silver designed in the Japanesque taste, Japanese pattern flatware was patented in 1871 by Edward C. Moore. The handles have different designs for different pieces, and Tiffany's patent describes it as "branches and twigs with leaves, buds and flowers of a peculiar kind. Among these branches, twigs and flowers is a bird." (as quoted in Charles Carpenter, Tiffany Silver, rpt. 1997, p. 161) The flatware pattern was re-issued in 1956 as the Audubon pattern.