Lot Details
Lot 38
World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago: Tiffany & Co. Sterling Silver Monumental Flagon
1893
Tapering cylindrical with band of musical putti against grape vines, the spout with Bacchus mask and grape vines and clusters, the hinged domed cover with foliate finial, all raised on double hoof feet with rams' mask joins. Height 25 inches, approximately 156 ounces.
Provenance:
Exhibited by Tiffany & Co. at The World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893
Katherine Medill McCormick, patron of the Columbian Exposition
Col. Robert R. McCormick, son and publisher of the Chicago Tribune
A.M. Kennedy, Sunday Editor of the Chicago Tribune, received as gilt from Mrs. Robert R. McCormick
By descent in the McCormick family
Christie's New York, January 27, 1996, lot 12
The World's Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492. It represented America's arrival on the world stage as an equal to the European nations in terms of cultural, industrial and technological advancement. During the six month period it was open, attendance numbers totaled 27.5 million visitors, which equaled half of the population of the entire nation at the time. Tiffany & Co.'s exhibit was heralded as the greatest display of American silver ever put on public display with pieces like the flagon offered here representing the very best of Tiffany's talented designers and craftsmen. Four years in planning, many of the pieces made for Tiffany's display were designed to impress and astound the public, rather than made for strictly commercial purposes, and the strategy worked with Tiffany & Co. taking the grand prize for silverware along with winning fifteen other prizes for their silver. Tiffany & Co. showed a staggering 1,159 pieces of silver at their stand. Marked with a special hallmark of a globe imposed upon a T, pieces exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition are collected not only for their craftsmanship, but as tangible links to America's coming of age. Today many of the World's Columbian Exposition pieces are held in museum collections.
C
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