MARK OF TIFFANY & CO., LONDON, 1972

The earliest known example of this model in the form of a pierced basket dated 1743-1744 is by Paul de Lamerie, now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Acc. No. 1959-151-6). A later pair by Lamerie dated 1747 are in the Farrer Collection, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Acc. Nos. WA1946.115 and WA1946.116), which were exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Rococo Art and Design in Hogarth's England, 1984, no. G21. In the catalogue entry for this exhibition Phillipa Glanville suggests that this design was perhaps inspired by earlier Meissen porcelain examples, which were being imported into London in the 1730s. She cites a scallop-shaped dish by Johann Höroldt for Meissen of circa 1728 with a painted diaper border which bears a resemblance to the piercing on the Lamerie baskets (see Pantheon, XV, 1935, p. 203). Moreover, French silver shell-shaped baskets are thought to have been produced after a design attributed to Thomas Germain, published by Diderot in Encyclopedie Planches, vol. 8, Orfèvres Grossier, Paris, 1771, fig. 5, pl. VI.
An example of this form as a pierced basket probably by Phillip Garden dated 1754 sold from The Collection of Benjamin F. Edwards III, Christie's, New York, 26 January 2010, lot 126. A further example by Williams Cripps dated 1755 sold at Christie's, New York, 17 May 2011, lot 186.