A Tiffany & Co. Silver Yachting Trophy: Goelet Cup, New York, 1893. Marks: TIFFANY & CO. 11662 MAKERS 3400, ST...

Description

A Tiffany & Co. Silver Yachting Trophy: Goelet Cup, New York, 1893
Marks: TIFFANY & CO. 11662 MAKERS 3400, STERLING SILVER, 925-1000, T
22-1/4 x 22-1/2 x 10-1/2 inches (56.5 x 57.2 x 26.7 cm)
411.98 troy ounces
Inscription: GOELET CUP AUGUST 11, 1893 / WON BY SCHOONER LASCA

American Presentation and Trophy Silver from the Collection of J.D. Parks

PROVENANCE:
Christie's, New York, June 17, 1992, lot 13;
Sotheby's, New York, December 15, 1998, The Victor Niederhoffer Collection of Trophy and Presentation Silver, lot 108;
Koopman Rare Art, London;
M.S. Rau, New Orleans;
Acquired from above.

Accompanied by Tiffany Archive's research dated October 2020, the shell-form cup, fluted in waves cresting in a seafoam rim, each side with a seagrass cartouche inscribed to one side, shell supported by mermaid draped in seagrass and intertwined with a dolphin rising from a base of shells and seagrass as if emerging from a wave.

The cup is recorded simply in the Tiffany & Co. Archives as Yacht-Prize-Schooner-Goelet, with a weight of 417.0 ozs. However, an 1893 Harper's Weekly article expounds, " Messrs. Tiffany seem to have outdone themselves this year, especially in the schooner prize, which is beautifully proportioned ...."

Each year from 1882 until 1897, the Goelet $1,000 cup for schooners was presented during the races off of Newport held during the New York Yacht Club Cruise. While the 1893 Goelet cup is majestic in design, the race was lackluster with little breeze and fog, and the events to follow, a fiasco. As reported in the NYTime August 14, "It now turns out that the Lasca won the Goelet schooner cup as Volunteer had not been properly entered. Through some oversight she was not officially entered by Mr. J. Malcolm Forbes. She sailed over the course, and the committee took her time and then decided to examine the case. To-day, in spite of all the protests of Mr. Forbes, the cup has been awarded to Mr. J.E. L. Brooks's schooner Lasca, the boat that finished second to the Volunteer."

Built in 1892, Lasca was "a centerboarder, 119 feet overall, designed by Cary Smith for John E. Brooks, won twice [1892 NYYC Cruise races]. She had a spoon bow and proved very successful." John Parkinson, The History of the New York Yacht Club, p.149.

Lasca's owner John E. Brooks, a third-generation clothier, was the grandson of Henry Sands Brooks, founder of H. & D.H. Brooks & Co., which became Brooks Brothers in 1850. In 1896, the year John E. Brooks retired as the company's president, he introduced the button-down collar to American fashion, inspired by the uniforms of English polo players.





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