John Chandler Moore wholesaled silver to Tiffany, Young and Ellis, along with William Bogert, Henry Hebbard, John Polhamus, and others. In 1851 Moore and his son Edward entered into an arrangement whereby they would manufacture exclusively for the Tiffany firm. The Bayou Bend tea service, a composite of Baroque and Rococo motifs, incorporates an allover ivy pattern. Seventeen years after the agreement, Tiffany purchased the Moore factory outright, making Edward C. Moore a principal stockholder and appointing him general manager with responsibility for overseeing the company’s production.

Technical notes: The bodies and necks of all four vessels are spun. The vented finials are soldered on. 

Related examples: Skinner, sale 1401, September 27–28, 1991, lot 80; Christie’s, New York, sale 7624, January 22, 1993, lot 183; Christie’s, sale 7830, January 21, 1994, lot 12; Christie’s, sale 8696, June 17, 1997, lot 34.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff.  American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.