Victorian Irish Silver Five Piece Tea & Coffee Service

Mark of Mackay, Cunningham & Co., partnership between James Mackay & David Cunningham, Edinburgh (1865), comprising a coffee pot (12 1/4 in.), teapot (7 1/4 in.), creamer (6 3/4 in.), double handled sugar (5 3/4 in.), and hot water kettle on stand (17 in.), each decorated in repeating repousse fruit baskets above floral swag within ornate chased tracery patterns, finely chased berry form finial, acanthus scrolled handles, over a conforming round foot.

135.75 total troy oz.

From the Historic Collection of Limestone University, Gaffney, South Carolina
Limestone College, now Limestone University, was founded in 1845 in Gaffney, South Carolina, by English-born Baptist minister Dr. Thomas Curtis and his son William. Originally established as the Limestone Springs Female High School, it was among the first women’s colleges in the nation and the very first in the state. The institution found its early roots in a former resort hotel near healing springs, later struggling due to the Civil War and Reconstruction. It revived in 1881 as the Cooper‑Limestone Institute, thanks to benefaction from industrialist Peter Cooper, and adopted the name Limestone College.

Overall good estate condition; scattered minor light scratches; some small dents, primarily to the water kettle body; kettle lacking burner insert and the hinge pin.