Three families of Rockefellers have owned this set. Learn more about the ‘Tobacco Leaf’ service, circa 1775. Estimate: $150,000-250,000 at Christie’s New York this Spring.
The voyages undertaken by Captain James Cook to the South Pacific in the 1770s aroused considerable interest among European botanists in Oriental flora. The so-called ‘tobacco leaf’ pattern, however, may owe as much in its derivation to textile designs supplied to the East India Company as it does to any interest in plant life. This service, which is painted in the design traditionally referred to as the chrysanthemum version of the ‘tobacco leaf’ pattern, and flowers, belonged to Lucy Truman Aldrich before being acquired by Nelson Rockefeller in the 1960s and ’70s.
Shortly before his death in 1979, Nelson sold it to his younger brother Laurance. In 1990, Laurance was considering selling the entire service when David and Peggy made him an offer. ‘We bought virtually all of the chrysanthemum pattern, but did not take any pieces from either the pseudo-chrysanthemum or the wheel patterns,’ recalled David, ‘as we did not think either of them was necessary for a handsome place setting.’
This lot is offered in the Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller in Spring 2018 at Christie’s in New York.