Live Auction 2373Important English, Continental and American Silver
THE STEWARDS' CUP, GOODWOOD 1865: A VICTORIAN SILVER RACING TROPHY
Lot 94 PROPERTY OF MRS. JEAN WEISS, NEW YORK

THE STEWARDS' CUP, GOODWOOD 1865: A VICTORIAN SILVER RACING TROPHY

MARK OF ROBERT GARRARD, LONDON, 1865; DESIGNED BY HARRISON WEIR

Closed19 May 2010

Price Realised

USD 92,500

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THE STEWARDS' CUP, GOODWOOD 1865: A VICTORIAN SILVER RACING TROPHY
MARK OF ROBERT GARRARD, LONDON, 1865; DESIGNED BY HARRISON WEIR
Depicting Robin Hood following a successful hunt, set on a circular rocky mound, the hunter holding his bow and blowing his horn, standing before a tree stump and flanked by his hounds, a dead stag beneath his foot, on a wooden plinth with applied silver plaques engraved GOODWOOD 1865 and WON BY OUT AND OUTER, marked on rock base, figure, bow, hounds, arrow on deer, and each plaque
The sculpture 22 in. (55.8 cm.) high

Specialist note

The present example, called the Stewards' Cup, was one of three major trophies presented to the winners of the "Glorious Goodwood" races of 1865. The Illustrated London News, on 3 August 1865, included a rendering of the present example, with the caption "Robin Hood Winding the Morte." The ILN describes the "spirited and lifelike" Robin Hood, "sounding a blast of triumph...for the information of their belated comrades in the chase."

Designed by Harrison Weir (1824-1906), a distinguished naturalist painter and illustrator, and modeled by W. Spencer, this trophy is part of a tradition of oversized, highly sculptural Victorian silver horse racing trophies. For example, the Royal Hunt Cup, Ascot, 1884, also depicts Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men following a stag hunt. It is illustrated in the Glory of the Goldsmith: Magnificent Gold and Silver from the Al-Tajir Collection, 1989, p. 230, no. 178.