Coffee/Tea Service

The influence of Japanese design blossomed in America after the display of Japanese objects at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876. This coffee and tea service is a good example of the Anglo-Japanese silver produced in the 1880s and 1890s by American maker Whiting Manufacturing Co. The charm of the set comes in part from the surprising use of American naturalistic elements—oak leaves, berries, pine cones, and corn flowers in mixed metal appliqué—rather than the Japanese elements more typically found in Anglo-Japanese silver.