MARK OF TIFFANY & CO., NEW YORK, 1877-1891

The present lot is a rare example of Tiffany's use of mokume panels on a larger scale. The process, inspired by Japanese technique, consists of hammering soldered layers of gold, silver and coppr alloys to create a unique material resembling woodgrain. Tiffany typically employed this process in smaller expanses such as on butterfly wings and gourds. For a similar, rectangular shaped vase fully applied with mokume panels at the 1878 Exposition Universelle in Paris illustrated by the Tiffany & Co. archives, see M. Masinter, Tiffany’s Mastery of Mokume Paris 1889, Master of Arts in the History of Decorative Arts, The Cooper Hewitt Museum and the Parsons School of Design, 1991, figs. 25 and 26. Another rare example of Tiffany's larger mokume works is a dish sold in in these rooms on January 22 2016, lot 276.