AN IMPORTANT EXPOSITION CENTERPIECE AND CANDELABRUM

Details

AN IMPORTANT EXPOSITION CENTERPIECE AND CANDELABRUM
MAKER'S MARK OF TIFFANY & CO., NEW YORK, 1939; MADE FOR THE 1939 WORLD'S FAIR, NEW YORK

Comprising central casket and two three-light candelabra; the shaped rectangular casket raised on four lobed and reeded feet, the cover with four openwork scroll panels enclosed by reeded bands, the finial with vertical bands forming a pyramid and flanked by similar openwork scrolls; the candelabra on tapering feet, each with three similar openwork scrolls applied with similar reeded bands and supporting reeded candlecups with removable circular nozzles, marked--length of casket candlecups 14 1/2in. (36.9cm.); length of candelabrum 10 1/8in. (25.7cm.)
(287 oz. 10 dwt.) (3)

Provenance

W. Alton Jones (b.1891), president of Cities Service Oil Company, collector of Tiffany jewelry, and founder of the W. Alton Jones Foundation. Jones became a major shareholder of Tiffany & Co. when Walter Hoving assembled a group of investors to take control of the company in 1961. This acquistion is described in Joseph Purtell, The Tiffany Touch, 1971, pp.181-194.

Lot Essay

A photograph of this centerpiece and candelabra on display at the 1939 World's Fair is in the Tiffany & Co. Archives. Tiffany silver in the Art Deco style is very rare, and records indicate that this set was the only one executed to this design. The majority of Art Deco silver made by Tiffany's, including the Century flatware pattern, appears to have been designed under Albert L. Barney, discussed by Charles H. Carpenter, Jr., Tiffany Silver, 1978, pp.268-291. A related centerpiece and pair of candelabra, also created for the 1939 World's Fair, but not finished until 1940, were designed by Charles B. Blake, a member of Barney's design team. The centerpiece is currently on exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the pair of candelabra is in the collection of the Newark Museum, and is illustrated in Charles H. Carpenter, Jr. and Janet Zapata, The Silver of Tiffany & Co., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1987, no. 66, p. 50.

Photo caption:

Drawing of design for this centerpiece and candelabra. Copyright C Tiffany and Company, 1992. Not to be published or reproduced without prior permission. No permission for commercial use will be granted except by written license agreement.