Paris Exposition of 1900 and Buffalo Pan-American Exhibition of 1901: An American Parcel-Gilt Silver and Hardstone Mounted "Viking" Style Jewel Casket, the design attributed to Paulding Farnham, Tiffany & Co., New York, Circa 1900

Paris Exposition of 1900, Tiffany Exhibit (palm mark)

Buffalo Pan-American Exhibition of 1901, Tiffany Exhibit (beaver mark)

Paulding Farnham was experimenting with Viking-influenced designs as early as the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition, with the "Viking" punch bowl now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a similar punch bowl recently with Spencer Marks and now at Yale University Art Gallery, and a match safe in the same style (see Loring, Magnificent Tiffany Silver, p. 132). The offered lot is an early example of Farnham taking up the style again, in time for the Paris Exposition of 1900, where he won a gold medal, perhaps inspiring him to further essays in the style.

This casket was shown a year later at the Buffalo Pan-American Exhibition of 1901, where it was joined by further "Viking" pieces: a three-piece coffee set (Newark Museum), a desk set (Christie's, New York, January 15, 2004, lot 113), and two vases (one sold Freeman's, Philadelphia, 14 November 2009, lot 338, and now Dallas Museum of Art; the other Sotheby's, New York, 20 January 2017, lot 3032). The coffee set was then re-displayed at the 1902 Turin exhibition, with a similar Farnham "Viking" vase (Brooklyn Museum). The year 1902 also saw two "Viking" punch bowls created to Farnham designs, formerly in the Victor Niederhoffer collection (sold Sotheby's, New York, 15 December 1998, lots 102 and 103). However, with the death that year of company president Charles Lewis Tiffany, Farnham's influence would be dramatically curtailed.