1869 Trophy

Picked up this 1869 Trophy advertised as silver but I have my doubts. I need to get a kit and test it but no hallmarks giving me cause for concern. Too late for coin?

 

Not too late for coin (legally, .900/coin is still the second standard in the U.S.)...

~Cheryl

 

Thanks Cheryl. It would be a nice surprise but I am not optimistic about silver content

 

Wouldn't surprise me at all, there was no specific year for the use of .925 becoming the norm, though most makers were using sterling by around 1870, and could certainly be old stock engraved for the presentation as well. Is that polish residue in the handles?

~Cheryl

 

Not sure, Cheryl, could be. Very reputable seller though (one of the long time appraisers on Antiques Roadshow) and a great guy.

 

Are you just looking for scrap / meltdown value? Many collectors of obscure sporting trophies would pay decent money for that...

 

Heck no! I tend to focus on silver pieces that offer value beyond the intrinsic melt value. But, yes a women’s half mile run in 1869 would probably qualify as obscure.

 

And have to wonder what the ladies were required to wear...

~Cheryl

 

That was my first thought! Too funny

 

And you can bet that would find an audience if sold. Female athletics from right after the Civil War ... talk about a rarity! If there's any justice in the world, track and field fiends would go nuts.

 

May have rushed to conclude this was a half mile RUN. Not definitely a running race.....

Although I did learn that the first athletic games for women were 15 years later in the same city of Boston

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women's_sports

 

If I read it correctly, it says, "Boston Athletic Sports, 1869, Half mile Prize given by the Ladies of Boston, E. Greenfield" - suspect the ladies were not participating, only presenting the cup...

~Cheryl

 

I tried in vain to find history on "Boston Athletic Sports"...nothing great so far, except this excerpt which clearly shows we've come a long way in our description of the mentally handicapped:

From Walden Pond: A History (1883):

The Prophetic Convention at which two converts were baptized in the lake at five P.M. At the Catholic Temperance Society picnic from St. Mary’s, Boston, “athletic sports” were featured. Unfortunately, nineteen-year-old deaf mute “Dummy” Roberts drowned, “and persistent efforts by varying expedients to recover the body failed,” including firing the town Thoreau’s Country cannon from the bank. A week later, on the day of the first of the six Poor Children’s events, a boy ran up from the water shouting, “I’ve found a dead man in the water!” “Dummy” bobbed near the bathhouse, his head resting on the sand. “A boat rowed by, an attendant
of the grounds soon appeared, a cord was slipped around one leg of the body, and it was towed to a secluded spot, followed on shore by a crowd of nearly 100 children, and that was poor Dummy’s funeral cortege.”

 

Very astute, Cheryl! You are correct. E Greenfield the winner?

 

Wow, the compassion is overwhelming!

 

I am with you...nothing. This history has to be documented out there somewhere.

 

The Boston Athletic Club wasn't formed until 1887. Maybe it was a precursor

 

Would love to see some official history of that connection, bev!