Demitasse Cups and Saucers

1878

Tiffany and Company , Artist Edward C. Moore , Designer

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About the Artwork

These four pieces come from one of the largest and most elaborate dinner services ever made in the United States. In 1877, mining millionaire John Mackay sent one thousand pounds of silver from the Comstock Lode in Nevada to Tiffany and Company in New York City. He commissioned the firm to create an immense dinner service from that silver at the request of his wife, Marie Louise Hungerford Mackay. Hundreds of artisans at Tiffany worked on the set for nearly two years, creating 1,250 individual pieces that could serve twenty-four diners. Impressive even by the standards of Gilded Age excess, the service was displayed by Tiffany at the 1878 Exposition Universelle in Paris before it went to the Mackays.

The enamel on the cups and saucers includes the monogram “MLM” for Marie Louise Mackay, along with the crest and motto of her family, the Hungerfords.

Title Demitasse Cups and Saucers

Artwork Date 1878

Makers Tiffany and Company (Artist) American, established 1837 Edward C. Moore (Designer) American, 1827 - 1891

Medium Silver-gilt and enamel

Dimensions Overall (Cup): 2 1/4 inches × 2 inches × 2 3/4 inches (5.7 × 5.1 × 7 cm) Overall (Saucer): 3/4 × 4 inches (1.9 × 10.2 cm)

Classification Silver

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Museum Purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. V2019.13