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Lot Essay
In 1873, John W. Mackay, an Irish immigrant to America spent twenty-two years mining in the American West. He discovered the largest silver deposit in America deep inside the fabled Comstock Lode of Virginia City, Nevada. According to family legend, when his wife Marie Louise Hungerford Mackay visited the mine, she asked if she could have enough silver for a dinner service. Her husband obliged, sending a half ton of silver to Tiffany's with instructions to make an elaborate dinner service for twenty-four.
Two hundred silversmiths worked for two years on the Mackay Service, producing 1,350 pieces of which 370 were holloware items. Charles Grosjean, creator of the Chrysanthemum and Lap-over patterns, designed the service. He named the pattern "Indian" after its dense floral arabesques and other references to Near-Eastern design. The service was exhibited to great acclaim at the 1878 Exposition Universelle in Paris, one critic commenting that "This splendid service alone would form a very full exhibit" (The Daily Graphic, May 25, 1878 as quoted in Carpenter, Tiffany Silver, 1997, p. 50). For a full discussion of the service see Carpenter, op. cit., pp. 56-67.
The Mackays kept a house in Paris, and later in London, where they entertained distinguished guests on a lavish scale, including the former United States President, Ulysses S. Grant. They were generous philanthropists and in 1908 founded the Mackay School of Mines at the University of Nevada to further advancement in mining exploration and development. Continuing in that tradition, when the present salad bowl and a meat dish from the service were sold in 1998 (Christie's, New York, 10 December 1998, lot 277) the proceeds went towards a student scholarship fund.
Two hundred silversmiths worked for two years on the Mackay Service, producing 1,350 pieces of which 370 were holloware items. Charles Grosjean, creator of the Chrysanthemum and Lap-over patterns, designed the service. He named the pattern "Indian" after its dense floral arabesques and other references to Near-Eastern design. The service was exhibited to great acclaim at the 1878 Exposition Universelle in Paris, one critic commenting that "This splendid service alone would form a very full exhibit" (The Daily Graphic, May 25, 1878 as quoted in Carpenter, Tiffany Silver, 1997, p. 50). For a full discussion of the service see Carpenter, op. cit., pp. 56-67.
The Mackays kept a house in Paris, and later in London, where they entertained distinguished guests on a lavish scale, including the former United States President, Ulysses S. Grant. They were generous philanthropists and in 1908 founded the Mackay School of Mines at the University of Nevada to further advancement in mining exploration and development. Continuing in that tradition, when the present salad bowl and a meat dish from the service were sold in 1998 (Christie's, New York, 10 December 1998, lot 277) the proceeds went towards a student scholarship fund.