About the Artwork
This small silver-gilt saucer, enameled with intricate polychrome designs, comes from one of the 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 each saucer includes the monogram “MLM” for Marie Louise Mackay, along with the crest and motto from her family, the Hungerfords.
Demitasse Saucer
1878
Tiffany and Company (Artist) American, established 1837 Edward C. Moore (Designer) American, 1827 - 1891
Silver-gilt and enamel
Overall: 3/4 × 4 inches (1.9 × 10.2 cm)
Silver
American Art before 1950
Museum Purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund
2019.13.3
Public Domain
Markings
Inscribed, on bottom of saucer: 53 | 2 [separated by a double line]
Marked, on bottom of saucer: TIFFANY & CO | 4881M5635 | STERLING SILVER
Provenance
1877, ordered by John W. Mackay [1831-1902] and Mary-Louise [Hungerford] Mackay [1843-1928].January 28, 30-31, 1994, sold at (Sotheby's, New York, New York, USA), lot 557.
purchased by Iris Schwartz [1921-2011] (New Jersey, USA);
January 20, 2017, sold at (Sotheby's, New York, New York, USA), lot 3074;
purchased by S. J. Shrubsole (New York, New York, USA);
2019-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance, please visit:
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Tiffany and Company; Edward C. Moore, Demitasse Saucer, 1878, silver-gilt and enamel. Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund, 2019.13.3.
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