Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Pitcher
Not on view
Enlivened by fluttering leaves, flapping wings, and splashing fish, this pitcher was one of Tiffany’s most popular Japanesque designs. A lively pond scene wraps around it in a dynamic, asymmetrical composition reminiscent of Japanese scrolls and screens. Firm records cite the object as a model for coloring Japanese alloys. When Tiffany displayed a pitcher of this design at the 1878 Paris Exposition, it was featured in a French publication on "masterpieces" of the fair. In a diary entry recording the sale of a version of the form in Paris, silver workshop supervisor Charles Grosjean notes, "Mixed metal attracts much attention. . . . Alloys much admired." In a testament to the work’s popularity and influence, Russian silversmith Pavel Ovchinnikov created a similar jug shortly after the fair.
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