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The Vanderbilt Candelabra: A Pair of Monumental 15-Light Tiffany & Co. Sterling Silver Candelabra

Circa 1883; Directorship of Edward C. Moore (1873-1891)
Each marked to underside of foot: Tiffany & Co. Makers / Sterling Silver / 925-1000 / M; and numbered: 7353 / 8887
Design attributed to Charles T. Grosjean
Each fifteen-light candelabrum profusely decorated with swirling acanthus leaves, shells, seaweed, and stylized dolphin's masks, on six lion's-paw feet
Each: 31.5" H x 23" Dia.
Total weight: 764 oz. troy approximately

  • Provenance:
    Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843-1899) or William K. Vanderbilt (1849-1920) of New York
    Property of a Southern Private Collector
    Sold: Sotheby's, New York, "Important Americana," January 21, 2000, lot 98
    M.S. Rau, New Orleans, LA
    From the Collection of Robert A. Day
  • Literature:
    John Loring, "Magnificent Tiffany Silver," (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2001.), pp. 142-143, illustrated, where Grosjean is posited as the designer
  • Notes:
    These magnificent large-scale candelabra, custom made for the Vanderbilt family, evoke not only America's Gilded Age but also Tiffany & Co.'s own greatest period under the design directorship of Edward C. Moore from 1873 to 1891.

    Charles Grosjean, designer and silversmith at Tiffany's, worked closely with Moore in this period, and the pair are credited with internationally-acclaimed designs, from the "Indian" style Mackay Service of 1878 to the famous Chrysanthemum pattern of the 1880s to the "Japanese" and "Turkish" objects of the same decade. On a parallel track with these exotic designs were objects inspired by ancient Roman motifs, such as the pair of "Roman" candelabra on stands recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, commissioned from Tiffany's by Moore's great patron, Mary Jane Morgan, in 1884. Both the Vanderbilt candelabra and the Morgan candelabra employ ancient Roman motifs such as acanthus leaves and lion's-paw feet, but in their innovative overall shape and swirling movement both pairs firmly belong to Tiffany's distinctive Aesthetic Movement style that flowered under Moore and Grosjean in the 1880s.

    It seems fitting that the great families of the Gilded Age gravitated toward Tiffany's "Roman" styles, given that their new mansions in New York drew on a Classical vocabulary. When William K. Vanderbilt and Cornelius Vanderbilt II built dueling mansions on upper Fifth Avenue in 1882 and 1883, respectively, Charles Grosjean designed custom flatware patterns of a rich design for both households. These candelabra were ordered at the same time, but whether they belonged to Cornelius and his formidable wife Alice or William and his even more formidable wife Alva is unknown.

    We are grateful to Jeanne Sloane for her assistance in researching and cataloguing the above lot.
  • Condition: Each overall good condition with tarnishing and light scratches commensurate with age. Wax residue to bobèches. One with a repair to one arm as well as a possible solder to center of upper circle of arms where they join together. The same one with a slight lean. Each with faint manufacturing lines to each arm.

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