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Author Topic:   a Spanish trophy with American connections
seaduck

Posts: 350
Registered: Dec 2006

iconnumber posted 04-05-2017 06:29 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for seaduck     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A yacht club I'm involved with just acquired a trophy that has a lot of character. (OK, you might say funk.) It's Spanish, but has an American backstory. I'm also wondering if some engraving might be American, which is why I'm posting this in the General forum.

The trophy is high quality silverplate and dates from 1907. It was given by the Queen of Spain to an American yacht ("Spokane")after a regatta in Bilbao. There seems to be precious little info readily available online about Spanish silver of this period. The trophy has one mark, which is on the underside of the lower tray, which is simply three crowns and the name "Hernandez." I can find nothing about a smith of that name at that time.

Here is what makes it funky in my mind: the engraving. The engraving on the main vessel is, to our eye, badly done -- especially for a piece given by the Queen for a race that the King himself had sailed in. (I apologize that I don't have a pic of the engraving on the opposite side -- it's similar in character and says "Real [Royal] Sporting Club Bilbao 1907".) The engraving on the lower tray, however, is quite fine and elegant.

We know from published history that the trophy was awarded the day after the race, and the Americans left either that day or the very next. I assume they would have taken the trophy with them.

To my eye, the lower tray might have been a later addition, or it might have been engraved here, even though the text is Spanish. The dealer we acquired this from thought that was very unlikely. The Hernandez mark would support Spanish origins for the tray. It is attached to the feet of the main trophy with bolts.

I don't know much about European silver (even less about Spanish) to know if that script would have been common or what you might expect to see. But it resembles a lot of American engraving of that time.

So, gang....what do you think? Any insight on the maker or the engraving or anything else?


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Kimo

Posts: 1627
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 04-05-2017 09:12 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kimo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Since it is not silver but rather silver plate the amount of information in any country on plate tends to be a shadow of what is available on silver. In most countries there were few requirements on marking and many companies that were making it.

I agree that the engraving on the cup itself seems a bit crude, especially compared to the engraving on the base. I think these were done by two different engravers - the one on the cup in advance of the race and the on the base being done after the race. I am not sure I would attribute one or the other to being by an American engraver as there were many talented engravers in Spain and other countries as well as less talented ones.

I think that this cup has a nice form, though I would have liked it more if it had a more nautical reference such as images of sail boats or at least anchors or mermaids or such.

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seaduck

Posts: 350
Registered: Dec 2006

iconnumber posted 04-05-2017 10:42 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for seaduck     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I suspect you are right about silverplate. Tho' it's interesting how little there is about Spanish silver at all in this period. Not sure what was going on in terms of economics at that time. Interesting, this was just a decade or so after the Spanish-American war.

As for mermaids 'n' such on trophies...oh, yes. Those are definitely the coolest. But I am continually amazed by what got made into yachting trophies. Lots of floral stuff. and of course generic presentation silver that might equally have been for boats, horses, prize cows, dogs, or golf. (Not to mention acres of revere bowls later on.) I think people donated silver they had kicking around the house (in an era when I guess people had excess silver kicking around the house).

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agphile

Posts: 798
Registered: Apr 2008

iconnumber posted 04-06-2017 03:34 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for agphile     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I can't help on Spanish marks. I agree about the work of different engravers before and after the race but suspect the second engraving is as likely as not to have been added in Spain.

As a non yachtsman I am intrigued that the prize was for the "Sonderklasse" (German for Special Class). Was this a recognised international term? Or can we start guessing at other reasons for not using a Spanish term?

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bascall

Posts: 1629
Registered: Nov 99

iconnumber posted 04-06-2017 09:05 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for bascall     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I believe the Deputy Commodore on the trophy was Francis Lewis Clark who was born in Maine in 1861. He was the co-proprietor of a flour mill in Washington State.

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seaduck

Posts: 350
Registered: Dec 2006

iconnumber posted 04-06-2017 03:33 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for seaduck     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Bascall: Thanks so much for that biographical tip. You are exactly right. I've done some research, which I might not otherwise have got around to. Quite the story. And the subject of great national speculation about his disappearance in 1914.

Agphile: The Sonder boats were the focus of an international competition that had started the year before, with locations alternating between the Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead, Massachusetts and the Kaiserliche Yacht Club in Kiel, Germany. Kaiser Wilhelm was the force behind it. King Alfonso expressed interest, and in 1907 additional Sonder races were held in Bilbao, after the Kiel regatta. It was the hot thing, with US presidents sponsoring trophies. World War I put an end to it -- the secretary of the Eastern had to write to the Kaiser to tell him that his honorary membership had been revoked.

Sonders are very beautiful and fast. Roughly 30 feet long. Still 50 or so in existence that are actively raced in Europe.

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 04-06-2017 05:59 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
International Sonder Class

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seaduck

Posts: 350
Registered: Dec 2006

iconnumber posted 04-06-2017 10:21 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for seaduck     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thank you, Scott, for those great images!

A discerning eye (which of course all silver folk possess) will detect slight differences among the boats in the pix. There was a "rule" -- a formula based on dimensions for various aspects of boat design --for the Sonders. That meant you could tweak your design, as long as you stayed within the basic rules. Owners hired different naval architects to design their boats, with the hope of beating out the competition.

On this 100th anniversary of the declaration of WWI, here we are. The Sonderklasse competition came to an end, just as so many young lives were about to be lost.

Not meaning to leave this on too much of an elegiac tone, it's also worth noting that the racing in Germany allowed sharp-eyed Americans to view recent technical advances in the German naval fleet. Germany had not previously been much of a naval force, and their observations proved of later value.

The things we (I at least) learn about history through an interest in silver!

Would still welcome any thoughts about Spanish silver of the period of this trophy....

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bascall

Posts: 1629
Registered: Nov 99

iconnumber posted 04-07-2017 08:40 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for bascall     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
You are welcome Seaduck. Apparently the mystery of F Lewis Clark's disappearance continues even though a body was found on 19 February 1914 in the ocean near Gaviola that may have been him.

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seaduck

Posts: 350
Registered: Dec 2006

iconnumber posted 04-07-2017 05:48 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for seaduck     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Aha...thank you again, Bascal. Had not discovered that tidbit in my research.

Spokane seems to have made a small industry of sorts around him. The city Park and Rec sponsored a 'Psychic Ghost" F.Lewis Clark tour (he apparently haunts the city). His house is a venue for weddings and events, run by a company called "Floating Hat Events." Seriously??? (For those following this, Clark disappeared after dropping his wife and son off a the train station; his hat was found floating about a mile off shore the next day.)

One interesting thing about his life is that he belonged to several major East Coast yacht clubs -- and was vice commodore and then commodore of at least one of them. A friend wondered about the amount of traveling he must have done, back when that would have been quite the trip.

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