A Rare Set of Eighteen Tiffany & Co. Gilt Silver Plates from the Collection of Mary Jane Morgan, New York, circa 1883. Desig... (Total: 18 )

Description

A Rare Set of Eighteen Tiffany & Co. Gilt Silver Plates from the Collection of Mary Jane Morgan, New York, circa 1883
Designed by Eugene J. Soligny
Marks: TIFFANY & CO, M, STERLING
9-1/2 inches (24.1 cm) (each, diameter)
9046 grams (290.84 troy ounces)

PROVENANCE:
Mary Jane Morgan;
Her sale, Thomas E. Kirby via the American Art Galleries at New York's Chickering Hall, 1886; Lot 729;
Possibly acquired by Charles L. Tiffany from the above;
Pierre J. Lorillard IV;
Thence by descent;
Christie's, New York, 20-21 January 2005, lot 70.
Private collection.

LITERATURE:
American Art Association, Priced Catalog of the Art Collection Formed by the Late Mrs. Mary J. Morgan, 1886

The dessert plates having gadrooned rims and pierced borders interspersed with highly detailed chased putti radiating from seashells with floral garland drapery, mermaids with flowing locks, and sinuous dolphins, the centers engraved with floral trellis, fourteen chased to the center with monogram MJM, four engraved with monogram SJCS, the four with engraved monograms with French import marks.

Mary Jane Sexton Morgan (1823-1885) was the daughter of Francis Sexton, a New York City Merchant involved East Indian trade. She married shipping, railroad and iron magnate Charles Morgan (1795-1878) in 1851 and inherited $9 million upon his death in 1878. Mary Jane Morgan used this sizable inheritance to fund an ambitious and seemingly unending quest to assemble a world-class art collection. Her voracity for collecting was perhaps only matched by her cousin-in-law, J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913).

When Mary Jane Morgan died in 1885, the press reported that "the house of the late Mrs. Morgan is literally honeycombed with secret closets and drawers filled with works of art of the most varied kind. Since the first inventory was made there have been several supplements. Now the total value is put down at something like four million dollars." (Town Topics, November 1885)

The executors of her estate sold her entire collection at auction following a ten-day exhibition in March 1886 at New York's American Art Association. The Morgan name and the stories of her tabloid-worthy spending habits garnered considerable press and public interest over the course of the three-day sale. Attendees and bidders included notable collectors and society members like Charles L. Tiffany, William Walters, Henry G. Marquand, Henry O. Havemeyer, Mrs. Collis P. Huntington, and Mrs. Ogden Goelet.

The multi-category sale included etchings, books and Asian & European decorative arts. According to the auction catalog, most of the 154 lots of silver were "with few exceptions made to order by Messrs Tiffany & Co." Recognizing their importance, Tiffany & Co.'s founder purchased back many of the masterpieces in the Morgan sale on behalf of the company.

The present lot is described in detail on page 142 of her auction catalog as part of lot 729, and the previous lot in this sale lot 728:
"728- FINGER BOWLS, best style of repousse chased ornamentation, pierced borders, gold finished. 18 pieces
729-PLATES, to match above. 18 pieces."

This unique set of plates was designed by one of Tiffany's greatest designers, Eugene J. Soligny. Soligny was born in Paris in 1832 and started working at Tiffany & Co. in the late 1850s. By 1890, Soligny has risen to become foreman of Tiffany's chasing department and oversaw the production of silver for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Soligny is perhaps best known for his work chasing Tiffany & Co.'s seminal Bryant Vase in 1876, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Mary Jane Morgan was familiar with Soligny's work, having owned the present lots and a tea and coffee service made by Soligny in the "American Flora" pattern, illustrated in John Loring, Magnificent Tiffany Silver, 2001, p. 136. Soligny's penchant for busy designs and detailed chasing perfectly aligned with Morgan's tastes for excess and ornamentation. The pierced rims to the present lot are exuberantly decorated with five nude putti set against radiating open shells with floral garlands overflowing towards the center ground. Each putto is framed by mermaids, stylized dolphins, and rocaille foliage in a seemingly endless panoramic animation of a fantasy nautical realm. The MJM monogram to the center of fourteen of the plates is boldly presented in chased and repousse techniques, with the floral lattice work to the center of the plates a close match to the ground found on the Soligny-designed Bryant Vase. Four plates bear an SJCS monogram, perhaps for a member of the Sexton family.

Though we know the preceding lot in her sale catalog (finger bowls) was of the same pattern and is included in this auction, the existence of a larger table service in this same pattern is unknown. The two lots, as finger bowls and plates, allude to the progression of a new course during a meal and are perhaps functioned as a dessert service.

It is of note that Tiffany did not produce this pattern as part of their regular series and this pattern was a special order. Excluding the present lots, there are only a pair of tazza known to definitely exist in this pattern (see Christie's New York, In Praise of America, 21 January 2021, lot 271). The bowls and plates were likely purchased at the 1886 auction by Charles L. Tiffany who possibly reworked four of the plates which bear the SJCS monogram. Morgan could also have originally ordered them with this different monogram however these four exhibit French import marks alluding they were likely later exhibited and/or sold in Paris. For the group to exist, in their unique pattern and original count, to present day means their dispersal and reunification was likely carried out by Tiffany & Co. who had outfits in both America and France. The two lots of 18 bowls and 18 plates were subsequently purchased by American tobacco magnate and horse breeder Pierre Lorillard IV. His descendants kept the Morgan silver in the Lorillard family until 2005.

Extant examples of Tiffany & Co.'s work attributed to Soligny are sparse, and rarer are those which have traceable provenance to one of America's most famous art collections. Enhancing the rarity of this lot is its complete count, being sold in the same way it was originally dispersed in 1886.

Today, artwork from Mary Jane Morgan's collection can be found in notable museums and private collections across the country including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the National Gallery of Art (Washington DC), The Walters Art Museum (Baltimore), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), and Art Institute of Chicago.

References:
Daphne T. Nash, The Art Collection of Mary Jane Morgan: A Document of Taste in Nineteenth Century New York, Master's Thesis, the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, 1999;
American Art Association, Catalogue of the Art Collection of Mary Jane Morgan, March 3, 1886 - March 15, 1886.
Harvey, Medill Higgins, et al. Collecting Inspiration: Edward C. Moore at Tiffany & Co.. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2021.
John Loring, Magnificent Tiffany Silver, 2001





*Heritage Auctions strives to provide as much information as possible but encourages in-person inspection by bidders. Statements regarding the condition of objects are only for general guidance and should not be relied upon as complete statements of fact, and do not constitute a representation, warranty or assumption of liability by Heritage. Some condition issues may not be noted in the condition report but are apparent in the provided photos which are considered part of the condition report. Please note that we do not de-frame lots estimated at $1,000 or less and may not be able to provide additional details for lots valued under $500. Heritage does not guarantee the condition of frames and shall not be liable for any damage/scratches to frames, glass/acrylic coverings, original boxes, display accessories, or art that has slipped in frames. All lots are sold "AS IS" under the Terms & Conditions of Auction.