A SILVER-GILT THREE-PIECE COFFEE SERVICE WITH TRAY, THE COFFEE POT FROM THE 1900 PARIS AND 1901 BUFFALO EXPOSITIONS**

Paulding Farnham designed this coffee pot as part of a grand silver-gilt dessert service in the Italian Renaissance style for the Paris Exposition of 1900. The service included an after-dinner coffee set, fruit and ice cream dishes, dessert plates, finger bowls, compotiers, a dessert flatware service, as well as candelabra, candlesticks and a centerpiece. The service was apparently retailed shortly after the 1901 Buffalo Exposition, where it was also displayed.
This coffee pot, stamped with the mark of the Paris and Buffalo exhibitions, is the mate to the cream jug, sugar bowl and twelve cups and saucers (also stamped with the exhibition marks) that sold in these Rooms, 19 May 2005, lot 23. Additional pieces from this service, sold by Christie's, include: a pair of silver-gilt jardinières and a set of four sweetmeat dishes (18 and 19 January, 2007, lots 200 and 201) and a set of four candlesticks and a matching candelabrum, (18 June 1998, lot 59 and 4 June 1998, lot 14). For a discussion of this service, see Janet Zapata, "The Rediscovery of Paulding Farnham, Tiffany's Designer Extraordinaire Part II: Silver," The Magazine Antiques, April 1991, pp. 718-729. For other silver produced for the 1900 Paris Exposition, see lots 47 and 52.