MARK OF TIFFANY & CO., NEW YORK, CIRCA 1880, DESIGNED BY EDWARD C. MOORE

This caddy is of exceptional interest as it displays the influence of English design reformer Christopher Dresser on his American friend and colleague, Edward C. Moore. At Moore's behest, Dresser travelled to Japan in 1877 to buy examples of Japanese handicrafts and artwork, some of which were later auctioned by Tiffany's in New York, and some of which Moore retained for his personal collection (donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on his death in 1891). Moore's immediate access to Japanese objects was extremely influential, in addition to providing a new and exotic decorative vocabulary. The finial on this caddy appears to be another tribute to Dresser, as the severe rod-and-ball design relates to Dresser's purely geometric silver designs produced by Hukin & Heath and James Dixon & Sons from 1878 through the early 1880s.

A closely-related tea caddy, with matching finial and feet, is illustrated in a Tiffany's archival photograph from the 1878 Paris Exposition (see John Loring, Tiffany's Magnificent Silver, 2001, p. 35).