A Tiffany & Co. Silver Walrus Ice Bowl, New York, 1877. Marks: TIFFANY & Co., 4159 MAKERS 2460, STERLING-SILVER, 925-1000,...

Description

A Tiffany & Co. Silver Walrus Ice Bowl, New York, 1877
Marks: TIFFANY & Co., 4159 MAKERS 2460, STERLING-SILVER, 925-1000, M, 981
9-3/4 x 11-1/8 inches (24.8 x 28.3 cm)
2902 grams (93.3029 troy ounces)

Property from a Southern Gentleman

PROVENANCE:
Sotheby's, New York, Important Americana: Furniture, Folk Art, Silver, Porcelain, Prints and Carpets including property sold by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, January 25, 2013, lot 194;
Sotheby's, New York, The Victor Niederhoffer Collection of Trophy and Presentation Silver (New York, Dec. 1998, sale no. 7239), lot 105.

EXHIBITED:
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana, 2017 - 2021.

LITERATURE:
John Loring, Magnificent Tiffany Silver, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001, p. 137.

The standing ice bowl with hammered surface, circular bowl with cast and applied gilt pine cones and needles, supported on a tapering-columnar pedestal with gilt band of classical relief and floral knops, resting on a cross-shaped base of ice floes with two finely chased cast walruses, pierced grill at bowl center for ice drainage into the interior of the pedestal.

The ice bowl is ornamented with elements drawn from a wide range of sources. The spot-hammered surface of the bowl and pedestal along with the pine sprigs with cones derive from Japanese metalwork that first became popular in Europe and the United States in the 1860s. However, the scrollwork band decorating the pedestal is based on Renaissance prototypes from 15th-century Italy. Unrelated to either Japanese or Renaissance design are the two walruses that rest on the cruciform base that is covered in cast icebergs and icicles.

The "M" stamped on the underside of this base stands for Edward C. Moore (1827-1891) who was the head of Tiffany's silver production from 1873 to his death in 1891. Moore was a gifted silver designer known to have worked in the Japanese taste and may well have created the basic model for this bowl along with some of the ornamentation. However, it is known that Eugene Julius Soligny (1833-1901) created the three-dimensional walruses that grace the base of the piece. He was born in Paris and studied with Léonard Morel-Ladeuil (1820-1888) before emigrating to the U.S. in 1856. Morel-Ladeuil was world-renown for his extraordinary skill at chasing and clearly trained Soligny well, as his student was also very gifted. By 1859 Soligny was working for Tiffany & Co. where he executed some of the best cast and chased work ever done in that shop. Attesting to the fact that Tiffany's greatly appreciated Soligny's skill is the fact that sometimes he was allowed to sign his work with his initials, which was unusual at the time.
Silver bowls for holding ice began to be produced in American around 1870. Among the earliest examples is one by Gorham in the form of a wooden barrel on an ice flow with a polar bear standing on the shoulder of the original spoon u https://fineart.ha.com/itm/silver-and-vertu/a-gorham-mfg-co-barrel-form-silver-ice-bucket-with-spoon-providence-rhode-island-1872-marks-lion-anchor-/a/8044-74066.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515 /u . Ice bowls were needed because of the confluence of technology and fashionable dining rituals. Since the early 19th century, ice had been cut in the winter on New England lakes, stored in straw or sawdust, and then shipped in the summer to the southern part of the United States and even exported abroad. In the second quarter of the century the invention of refrigeration equipment allowed ice, along with fresh vegetables, fruit, and seafood, to be shipped by rail across much of the United States. This development allowed more middle and upper-class Americans to partake in the eating of expensive and exotic foods, including ice. Hence, specialized vessels for holding the precious treat and its offspring--ice cream--were created for use on the table. This lot is an example of the most elaborate of these pieces.

Many ice containers incorporated Arctic imagery in reference to the frozen nature of the ice they contained. In 1874 a writer in Scribner's published an article entitled "The Silver Age", which recorded an idealized dinner given in one of New York's finest homes. As part of the lengthy description the author says there are butter dishes, water pitchers, and containers for "crushed ice rimmed with pendent icicles of frost-silver, and their bases piled with rugged Arctic scenery, in blocks and bergs and polar bears." While cast polar bears were indeed popular on ice bowls, sleighs pulled by reindeer, and walruses were also used. The two walruses standing on the base of this lot were designed by Eugene Soligny as mentioned above. This is documented by the fact that his drawings of the animals are included in his personal sketchbook that survives in the Tiffany Archives. Furthermore, the drawing of the actual walrus casting on this lot is very close to the Soligny sketch (see Loring, Magnificent Tiffany Silver).





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