Five phone bidders, including the buyer, were from the UK.
Awarded a gold medal at the St Louis International Exhibition, Moorcroft pottery was sold by Shreve & Co. from 1904, with Tiffany and other famous American stores following shortly afterwards. Many pieces were silver-mounted.
This 7½in (19cm) high vessel in the Claremont pattern c.1905 was made specifically for export, as shown by the green painted mark to the base reading W. Moorcroft, Shreve & Co., San Francisco. It had been a wedding gift to the vendor's grandparents and passed down in the family before it was offered for sale on October 6.
In March 1906, Shreve & Co. opened their new 11-storey headquarters at Post Street and Grant Avenue. Built with the latest engineering technologies of the time, the building was one of only a few to survive the Great San Francisco earthquake the following month.
