Opening Summer 2021 This find is, for historical researchers, almost akin to
discovering the legendary Holy Grail. Very few com-
pany records have survived into the present, and the records that do survive almost never include the
names of workers. While many similar receipts are preserved in the Gorham archive, this is the only one I saw that also had names attached.
Pieces like this one were special commissions.
The customer would have chosen various stock
components from the Gorham showroom or its catalogs, including the body shape, handles, and embellishments. Some features, such as the figure of
Victory, may have been designed, sculpted, and cast especially for this piece. The artist would have drawn
the final design, and having secured the customer’s
approval, the design then would have been sent to the manufacturing department.
Further research tells us just a little bit more
about the makers of this Astor Cup. For instance, we
know that the six men were all immigrants to the U.S. Adolph Erichsen and Carl Wikant immigrated to the
U.S. from Norway, George Shirley and James Holyoake from England, and James Pender and Robert Wacker
came from Nova Scotia and Germany, respectively. When John Holyoake petitioned for U.S. citizenship, George Shirley served as a witness.
See this trophy and many more Museum treasures
when the exhibit, provisionally titled, Sea as Muse , opens in Summer 2021. In addition to trophies, the
exhibit will also highlight carved wood panels and furniture that Swedish immigrant Karl von Rydings-
vard created for Arthur Curtiss James’s yacht, the Aloha II, and works by English-born artists Clement J. Heaton and Frances Palmer.
Katherine Hijar, Ph.D., is the Luce Project assistant curator.
LEFT: Curator Katherine Hijar with the Astor Cup trophy, Tiffany & Co., 1893. CENTER: The costing receipt for the 1895 Astor Cup awarded to the owner of Defender. Gorham Company Archive, John Hay Library, Brown University. RIGHT: Astor Cup trophy awarded to the Defender, Gorham Manufacturing Co., 1895. 1961.895.
FALL / WINTER 2020
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