posted 04-27-2005 01:33 PM            

I just found this at the Cincinnati Art Museum web site and thought this forum's members would find it interesting:

quote:

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[gone from the internet - cincinnatiartmuseum.org - news_tiffany.shtml]
Cincinnati Art Museum - Tiffany Loving Cup

Tiffany & Co., Loving Cup, 1894-1902, Museum Purchase: Lawrence Archer Wachs Fund, 00/01.97.

By the late 19th century, the United States had become a wealthy, industrialized world power and as such set out to establish a cultural identity of its own. Aesthetically, the search for this new identity led to the use of many overtly American themes and symbols, such as arctic exploration, indigenous flora and fauna and the Native American. The depiction of the Native American as a "noble savage" was quite popular in America in the late 19th century. In the manufacturing of silver, Tiffany & Co. explored the rich heritage of Native Americans as a design source and produced many wares in this truly American style.

The Loving Cup, recently acquired by the Cincinnati Art Museum, is one of Tiffany & Co.'s finest examples in Native American style silver. It dates from 1894 to 1902, stands nearly 15 inches tall and weighs over 200 oz (12.5 lbs.). .....

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posted 04-27-2005 04:30 PM            

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Loving cup with two bison-horn handles chased with a George Catlin scene of a Native American bison hunt. The stem and collar of the 15-inch-tall cup have copper and niello Native American motifs, and the collar is applied with the Native American war shields that were first used on the Bennett candelabra in 1875. The hunting scene was almost certainly the work of Eugene Soligny, and the geometrical Native American patterns were probably designed by Paulding Farnham. The base is engraved "Eugene Higgins 1900." Higgins, an heir to his father's huge carpet manufacturing fortune, devoted his life to hunting, yachting, golf, coach racing, and fencing: on his 309-foot steam yacht Varuna he entertained King Christian of Denmark, Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. In 1909 Varuna sank after striking a reef off Madeira; all but one of the 65 passengers and crew survived, and Higgins was awarded a gold medal by the French government for saving the lives of two French guests. Upon his death in 1948 he left a $40 million trust fund for scientific research. The Cincinatti Art Museum bought the loving cup at Christie's for $237,000 on January 18, 2001.

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Loring's book has photographs of numerous other trophies and loving cups in a similar style.

posted 02-15-2006 08:57 AM            

• Trophies
  
• old trophies

posted 03-09-2006 09:07 AM            

http://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/

I have not had the opportunity to see the museum in person, but from all I have heard it is a "full size nice museum"; certainly they have skilled, knowledgeable curators as shown by recent articles in The Magazine Antiques. Cincinnati is a river town with a strong German heritage. In many respects it is similar to St. Louis, the town I grew up in, and only lacks the small remaining French and Spanish influence St. Louis enjoys from its initial settlers.

Some years ago I remember a New Yorker on hearing that I was from St. Louis, saying that I was fortunate to be in the skiing region of the United States. That was my first realization that people on the east coast and maybe the west coast sometimes have a lack of knowledge about the mid-west.