Pitcher

1878

Design attributed to Edward C. Moore (American, 1827–1891)
Tiffany and Company (American, founded 1837)
New York

An asymmetrical water scene, realized through a combination of hammering, engraving, and applied metal elements, wraps around the body of this pitcher. The vignette was almost certainly inspired by the work of Katsushika Hokusai, a Japanese artist known for his dynamic woodblock prints of the natural world. Tiffany and Company’s design library included three volumes of Hokusai’s work, many featuring the same graceful irises, enlivened dragonflies, and splashing carp visible on this pitcher.

Status: On View, Gallery 273
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Edward C. Moore (Designer)
Title: Pitcher
Place: New York City (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1878
Medium: Silver, gold, and copper
Inscriptions: Marked on bottom: TIFFANY & CO. / 5051 MAKERS 9267 / STERLING SILVER / AND / OTHER METALS / 144
Dimensions: 20.3 × 12.7 × 15.2 cm (8 7/8 × 5 1/4 × 6 7/8 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Mrs. Frank L. Sulzberger
Reference Number: 1984.240
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/102295/manifest.json

Judith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 248–250, no. 120.
Martha Tedeschi, Gregory Nosan, et al., “Objects of Desire: Victorian Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Museum Studies 31, Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005, no. 15, 82 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, Elizabeth McGoey, et al., American Silver in the Art Institute of Chicago (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), cat. 58 (ill.).
Elizabeth McGoey, ed., American Silver in the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2018), https://publications.artic.edu/americansilver/reader/collection/section/6, cat. 58 (ill.).

By descent to Mrs. Murray M. Horowitz; to Murray M. Horowitz, Neponsit, N.Y., by 1984; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1984.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.