Pitcher (Ewer or pitcher)

Description

Whiting Manufacturing produced imaginative, complex, layered visual compositions on similar baluster-shape pitcher forms that feature engraved, chased, and applied electroplated "mixed metal" surface ornaments with a rigorously faceted ground. This example has a prominent koi fish (Japanese-bred ornamental carp) twisting to swim through silver and copper-colored water plants on one side and a trio of water lily leaves with copper-colored berries and a crab on the opposite. The aquatic references may allude to liquids held by the pitcher, but the prisms of light reflecting from the exterior's pentagon-shaped hammered facets transform this static serving vessel into a dynamic shimmering work of silver. Whiting's designers, like those at Gorham and Tiffany, were inspired and invigorated by contemporary by Japanese artists’ metalwork, prints, and other media newly available in the United States during the 1870s.