Butter Dish
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
These two silver dishes, made in New York a generation apart, were both designed to serve butter at the dining table in an upper-middle-class household. Although both have highly decorated surfaces, the Tiffany dish appears more modern to the contemporary eye. This is due to the narrative linear decoration and the simple, bold geometry of the silhouette, both inspired by the Aesthetic Movement of the 1870s and 1880s, which looked to the arts of Japan.
Caption
Ball, Black & Company American, 1851–1876. Butter Dish, ca. 1850. Silver, 4 3/4 x 5 7/8 x 5 7/8 in. (12.1 x 14.9 x 14.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of S. B. Luyster, Jr., 32.472. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 32.472_acetate_bw.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Title
Butter Dish
Date
ca. 1850
Medium
Silver
Classification
Dimensions
4 3/4 x 5 7/8 x 5 7/8 in. (12.1 x 14.9 x 14.9 cm)
Markings
"Ball, Black & Co. N. York" [or their mark] "E & S" [man's head, lion passant & beehive]
Credit Line
Gift of S. B. Luyster, Jr.
Accession Number
32.472
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
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