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International Art Treasures Web Magazine May 2005 |
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Museum Acquires Tiffany Yachting Trophy
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The Chrysler is pleased to announce an important new addition to its permanent decorative arts collection, a beautiful silver Tiffany yachting trophy. The trophy is visually spectacular and in excellent condition. This impressive object includes exquisite detail of mythological maritime scenes with waves and six winged zephyrs rendered in bas-relief in the mid-section. The upper portion of the body and neck is ringed with eight tritons sounding horns, their bodies rising from the sea. |
Although the Chrysler’s silver collection contains some outstanding American silver from the turn of the last century it lacked a major example made by Tiffany & Co. —the firm which was founded by Louis Comfort Tiffany’s father. The recent acquisition of this splendid monumental yachting trophy fills those gaps with style and at the same time builds on our overall strength in 19th-century art and decorative arts.
This historically important silver yachting trophy was co-sponsored by two of America’s most important late 19th-century yachtsmen: Ogden Goelet and James Gordon Bennett, Jr., owner of the New York Herald. While each of these patrons commissioned or sponsored yachting trophies independently, this object is, at present, the only known surviving trophy that they sponsored together. It was originally awarded to Scottish brewer, Andrew Barclay Walker in March of 1895.
This beautiful Tiffany & Co. yachting trophy will be on view in the Museum’s 19th-Century Gallery later this spring.
Image Credits:
Title: Yachting Trophy
The Ogden Goelet and James Gordon Bennett Cup, 1894
Artist: Tiffany & Company, New York, NY (American)
Medium: Silver
Dimensions: 24 1/2 Inches
Chrysler Museum Purchase,
Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Decorative Arts Fund, 2005.6
All Images Courtesy: The Chrysler Museum of Art.