The cup and saucer with all over mokume surface, the cup with gilt interior and silver scroll handle, USA, ca. 1878; Each marked on reverse, also marked 5044/900, and with French import marks; 2 1/4" x 3 7/8" overall; Tiffany & Co. design director Edward C. Moore owned several example of Japanese mokume and in the late 1870s his firm mastered this technique of mixing metals to imitate woodgrain. The effect was created by hammering, cutting, folding and laminating sheets of gold, silver and copper. Early examples of Tiffany's mokume were used as small decorative elements and objects created with the all-over surface pattern were rare. This cup and saucer, and another of the same design, (sold Christie's New York, January 17, 2008, lot 77) are rare and early examples of Tiffany's all-over mokume surface pattern. These cups and saucers relate to a tea service constructed of mokume panels and exhibited at the 1878 Paris Exposition. See: Frances Gruber Safford and Ruth Wilford Caccavale "Japanese Silver by Tiffany and Company in the Metropolitan Museum of Art", The Magazine Antiques, October 1987, fig. 10, p. 818 for a kettle, milk jug, and tray.
The cup and saucer with all over mokume surface, the cup with gilt interior and silver scroll handle, USA, ca. 1878; Each marked on reverse, also marked 5044/900, and with French import marks; 2 1/4" x 3 7/8" overall; Tiffany & Co. design director Edward C. Moore owned several example of Japanese mokume and in the late 1870s his firm mastered this technique of mixing metals to imitate woodgrain. The effect was created by hammering, cutting, folding and laminating sheets of gold, silver and copper. Early examples of Tiffany's mokume were used as small decorative elements and objects created with the all-over surface pattern were rare. This cup and saucer, and another of the same design, (sold Christie's New York, January 17, 2008, lot 77) are rare and early examples of Tiffany's all-over mokume surface pattern. These cups and saucers relate to a tea service constructed of mokume panels and exhibited at the 1878 Paris Exposition. See: Frances Gruber Safford and Ruth Wilford Caccavale "Japanese Silver by Tiffany and Company in the Metropolitan Museum of Art", The Magazine Antiques, October 1987, fig. 10, p. 818 for a kettle, milk jug, and tray.
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