Tea and Coffee Set

This tea set, which broke new ground in terms of both technique and decoration, exemplifies Tiffany & Co.'s committment to innovation. Featuring niello and copper ornament, its decorative scheme draws inspiration from the art of the Islamic world. Painstaking experiments are outlined in Tiffany's technical manual, which enumerates the difficulties associated with the "entirely new" technique and stipulates that a thin wall of silver must separate the materials because "niello will destroy copper when heated." This complexity explains the high wholesale cost of more than $900 for the set, which originally included five pieces. These objects were passed down in the family of Edward C. Moore, the head of Tiffany's silver divsion, underscoring Moore's personal affinity for the art and decorative vocabulary of the Islamic world and pride in this "chromatically" decorated metalwork.