Title
A Sixty-Five-Piece Flatware Service
Date
1884
Description
A sixty-five-piece flatware service (American, 1884) designed by Charles T. Grosjean (American, died 1888) for Tiffany & Co., New York, with blades by Joseph Rodgers & Sons, Sheffield, England. Originally part of a service numbering 918 pieces, the service was commissioned for William K. and Alva Vanderbilt’s “Petite Chateau” located at 660 Firth Avenue.
The forks and spoons of the service are decorated on the front with the Vanderbilt coat of arms below a helmet on a foliate mantel with an acorn finial above a scene of Actaeon and his hounds amongst laurel leaves. Their backs are marked “STERLING / TIFFANY & CO.” and decorated with the entwined monogram “WKV”, for William K. Vanderbilt (1849-1920), above the hunting trophies of a stag's head, horn, bow and quiver of arrows, ending in a tassel against laurel branches emerging from an oak crown above a leopard skin. The knives of the service are decorated on the front with matching arms and helmet above a scene of Hercules and the Nemean lion, their backs with the same monogram above a lion skin, Hercules' club and laurel branches. The backs of the knives are marked in raised letters “TIFFANY & CO STERLING.” The blades of the dinner knives are incised “VR” around a crown and “JOSEPH RODGERS & SONS / CUTLERS TO HER MAJESTY” above a star and cross mark.
Roughly ten private patterns were produced by silver retailer Tiffany & Co. in the 19th century for prominent American families and both William and his older brother Cornelius ordered silver flatware services bearing the Vanderbilt family arms in 1884.
The forks and spoons of the service are decorated on the front with the Vanderbilt coat of arms below a helmet on a foliate mantel with an acorn finial above a scene of Actaeon and his hounds amongst laurel leaves. Their backs are marked “STERLING / TIFFANY & CO.” and decorated with the entwined monogram “WKV”, for William K. Vanderbilt (1849-1920), above the hunting trophies of a stag's head, horn, bow and quiver of arrows, ending in a tassel against laurel branches emerging from an oak crown above a leopard skin. The knives of the service are decorated on the front with matching arms and helmet above a scene of Hercules and the Nemean lion, their backs with the same monogram above a lion skin, Hercules' club and laurel branches. The backs of the knives are marked in raised letters “TIFFANY & CO STERLING.” The blades of the dinner knives are incised “VR” around a crown and “JOSEPH RODGERS & SONS / CUTLERS TO HER MAJESTY” above a star and cross mark.
Roughly ten private patterns were produced by silver retailer Tiffany & Co. in the 19th century for prominent American families and both William and his older brother Cornelius ordered silver flatware services bearing the Vanderbilt family arms in 1884.
Cultural Origin
American
Medium
silver-gilt
Extent
.1-.13 = dinner forks (7 3/4" x 1 1/8")
.14 - .26 = dinner knives (10 1/2" x 7/8")
.27 - .39 = dessert spoons (7 1/4" x 1 1/2")
.40 - .52 = dessert forks (7 1/4" x 1")
.53 - .65 = dessert knives (L: 8 5/8")
Collection
Source
Purchased by The Preservation Society of Newport County, 2005.
Identifier
PSNC.10109.1-.65
For more information about this item, please contact its owning institution.