.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This tray matches an unusual three-piece mixed-metal ale drinking set sold in these rooms on 19 January 2018, lot 255. Similarly spot-hammered and decorated with two-color Japanese gold hop blossoms on copper vines, the three-piece ale set included a covered jug (pattern number 5290) and pair of canns (pattern number 5292). Whereas the leaves on the present tray are tipped with copper, the jug and two canns feature ale drips suspending from the upper rim highlighted in copper. The ale set is now in the collection of the Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute, Utica, New York, purchased in part with funds from the Family of Theodore C. Max (2018.2.1-3).
Tiffany & Co. archives list this kidney-form model of tray as a "Waiter Hop." A tray of this shape, but with unadorned surface, was sold Sotheby's, New York, 23 June 1994, lot 50. The cataloguing for the Sotheby's lot notes that the manufacturing cost of the plain model was $186, with an additional $5 for gilding.
Tiffany & Co. archives list this kidney-form model of tray as a "Waiter Hop." A tray of this shape, but with unadorned surface, was sold Sotheby's, New York, 23 June 1994, lot 50. The cataloguing for the Sotheby's lot notes that the manufacturing cost of the plain model was $186, with an additional $5 for gilding.