Silver maker
Tiffany & Co. marks
Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B.
- Active
- 1837–present (silver retailing from the 1840s; own silver manufacture from 1868)
- Based in
- New York, New York, United States
- Marks listed
- 10
- Typical pieces
- holloware, flatware, presentation silver, jewelry
The marks, by date
Each mark’s wording is written out as a transcription: the words and line breaks, not a picture of the mark. Where a source describes a mark instead of quoting it, the description is shown in italics.
Retailer's name with the initials of maker John C. Moore (925-1000 type A).
925-1000 type B, made by J. C. Moore.
925-1000 type C; 550 Broadway was the store's address in these years.
M for Edward C. Moore (type D).
T for Charles L. Tiffany (type E).
C for Charles T. Cook (type F).
M for John C. Moore II (type G).
M for Louis de Bebian Moore (type H).
L for William T. Lusk (type I).
Director's initial discontinued (type J).
History
Young opened a stationery and fancy-goods shop in New York in 1837, and the firm became Tiffany, Young & Ellis in 1841 and Tiffany & Co. in 1853. Early silver was supplied by outside New York silversmiths, above all John C. Moore, whose shop worked exclusively for Tiffany from 1851. In 1868 Tiffany bought the Moore firm and became a manufacturer, with Edward C. Moore running the silver side until his death in 1891. Sources credit Tiffany, Young & Ellis with introducing the English sterling standard (.925) to American-made silver in 1851.
Dating clues
- After 1868 Tiffany marked pieces with the initial of the head of the silver department or the company president; the practice ended in the mid-1960s.
- Holloware pattern numbers give the earliest possible production date: 925-1000 lists pattern 1 in 1851, about 10,400 in 1890, 14,250 in 1900 and 23,310 in 1950. Popular designs stayed in production for years, so treat this as a 'not before' date.
- Order numbers were internal production numbers and, per 925-1000, are not useful for dating without the Tiffany archives.
- Before about 1868, pieces often carry both the Tiffany name and the mark of the outside silversmith who made them (e.g. Moore, Gale, Grosjean & Woodward).
Look-alikes and reproductions
- The letter M appears in two eras (Edward C. Moore, 1873–1891, and the Moore directors of 1907–1956), so read the full mark wording, not just the initial.
Other names on the marks
Tiffany & Young; Tiffany, Young & Ellis; Tiffany & Company
Where sources disagree: silvercollection.it's summary of the director letters (C, C, J, L, W for 1891–c.1965) does not match the letters shown on the 925-1000 and ASCAS mark charts (T, C, M, M, L). We follow the charts, which illustrate the actual marks. 925-1000 dates the Tiffany & Co. name from 1853; the store dates from 1837.
Sources
Marks help identify a maker and a date range, but they can’t prove a piece is genuine. Reproductions and later reissues can carry old marks. This entry isn’t an appraisal.