MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

When nine-year-old John Mackay arrived in 1840 as a poor immigrant from Ireland, he could not have imagined that he would one day be one of America’s richest men, making his fortune, as a part owner of the legendary Comstock Lode, from the discovery of the “Big Bonanza” silver mine in 1873. According to family lore, Mackay and his wife visited the Big Bonanza before moving to Paris in 1874; when Mrs. Mackay to have something “fine and memorable” made from a twisted piece of silver, Mackay shipped half a ton of pure silver to Tiffany and Co.’s New York manufactory.

The elaborate 1250-piece silver service finished in 1878 mirrored the opulence and excess of the Gilded Age as well as the rags-to-riches social ambition of John and Marie Louise Mackay. The huge number of flatware and tableware pieces reflected the ever-increasing extravagance of the late nineteenth century as well as the shift in dining from “a la Française” to “a la Russe.” Also present were other factors in American society: increased per capita income; a decline in silver bullion prices stemming from increased quantity of silver; improved methods of growing, processing, and transporting food; and the resulting expansion of people’s diet to specialty foods such as anchovies, sardines, celery, salads, ice cream, and other foods that “required” specialized eating implements.

The Mackay silver was exhibited by Tiffany’s at the Paris International Exposition of 1878. The silver service garnered both criticism and critical praise, but helped win Tiffany & Co. the Grand Prix, a special gold medal for the designer Edward C. Moore, and the medal of the Legion of Honor for Charles Louis Tiffany. It was Tiffany’s largest custom-designed service of the late nineteenth century, and was emblematic of the highest products of a bygone age.