Pitcher

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Pitcher

Manufacturer Tiffany & Co. (New York)

Dateabout 1878

Dimensions10 1/16 × 7 7/8 × 5 11/16 in. (25.6 × 20 × 14.5 cm)

MediumSilver

ClassificationMetalwork

Credit LineDecorative Arts Purchased Fund and Museum Art Fund

Object number

1985.32

Not on View

Label TextFollowing US Commodore Matthew C. Perry’s 1852–54 Expedition to Japan, fascination with Japanese culture increased in America and Europe. In this pitcher, Charles Lewis Tiffany & Company included Asian-inspired design elements—the decoration of butterflies and field grasses, the hammered surface, and the band of pattern at the base—to appeal to his clients’ taste for things Japanese. The Tiffany pitcher and the other luxury objects in this case attest to the increasingly affluent lifestyle of some Americans during the late 1800s and early 1900s—the period dubbed “The Gilded Age” by Mark Twain.