An American silver-mounted Chinese style tusk ewer, Tiffany & Co., New York, dated 1880. Photo Sotheby's

with plain tusk-section body, the silver mounts chased with floral and foliate motifs, fully-modelled dragon handle, engraved on base: H.V.N. from G.C.C. November 1880 and Matilda and Hermann From H. Victor Newcomb upon the occasion of their Marriage, Nov. 9th 1898.; marked on base and numbered 5828-1499; height 13 in.; 33 cm. Estimation 15,000 — 25,000 USD

Horatio Victor Newcomb (1844-1911) was a banker originally of Louisville who organized the United States National Bank of New York in 1880 and was for several years its president. He gifted the tankard upon the marriage of his son Herman Danforth Newcomb (1869-?) to Matilda Florence Churchill (1876-1966) on November 9, 1898.

This piece is comparable to the Morgan Cup, presented by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1887, preserved in the NY Yacht Club, and illustrated in Charles H. Carpenter, Tiffany Silver, 1997, p. 151. Another similar dragon-handled tankard is illustrated in John Loring Tiffany's 150 Years, 1987, p. 78.

Sotheby's. Important Americana. New York | 24 janv. 2014 - www.sothebys.com