Tiffany Silver

New York: Peter Owen Limited, 1978. Hardcover. VG-/G (book shows very slight foxing on top third of textblock, minimal shelf wear, all pages clear and intact - dust jacket is price clipped on front inside flap, shows rubbing and shelf wear and top, corners and spine, a few small tears at spine mended with scotch tape, still protective). Blue cloth boards with silver gilt lettering on spine, blue and orange pictorial dust jacket with white lettering, xix, 296 pp., mostly bw illustrations with a few in color. "The nineteenth-century silverware of Tiffany & Co. has an important place in the history of decorative arts, the significance of which is being increasingly recognized among collectors and museums for the high quality of the silver, the inventiveness of the designs, and the marvelous range of forms in which they were made. This definitive study of that silver traces the history of the company founded by Charles L. Tiffany, who, with his great silversmith, Edward C. Moore, propelled it to world renown. Holow-ware forms are explored from tea and coffee services, centerpieces, water pitchers, and punch bowls to the John Mackay service of 1250 pieces made from a half ton of silver directly out of the Comtock Lode. All the Tiffany nineteenth- and twentieth-century flatware patterns are described, as well as presentation silver, swords and guns, in Japanese style, with anecdotes of the fascintating people who have owned them. There is a comprehensive chapter on marks, together with a description of how silver was made in the nineteenth century and suggestions as to how it may best be cared for today. Illustrated with drawings from original sketchbooks of designs, more than three hundred black and white photographs, and four color plates, this handsome volume is an invaluable record of a great American art and craft for amateur and professional collectors alike." - dust jacket description.