PROPERTY FROM THE KOPLAR BROWN FAMILY COLLECTION, LAKE OZARK, MISSOURI "Meet me in the lobby." Harold Koplar, the affable and gregarious proprietor of the Chase Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis, who was fondly called "HK", said these words often. HK enjoyed holding court in the bustling lobby of his hotel; it was the place where he conducted business meetings, greeted guests and supervised his employees. The lobby was also where many of HK's favorite objects were displayed including the Louis XV style long case clock by François Linke and the group of bronze statues of Peplophori cast by Chiurazzi after ancient examples (both to be offered in Christie's sale of 19th Century Furniture, Sculpture and Works of Art sale 25 October 2007). Works of art were displayed throughout other public spaces of the hotel as well. A pair of monumental silver pilgrim bottles by Sebastian Garrard (lot 109 in this sale) were displayed in the Gourmet Room Restaurant. HK said that he wanted his guests and employees to enjoy his collection as much as he did. The works of art displayed in the Chase Park Plaza were later moved to HK's new hotel, The Lodge of Four Seasons in Lake Ozark, Missouri. During the 1960s, Koplar purchased 7,300 acres of lake-front land at the Lake of the Ozarks, the nation's largest man-made impoundment which was created by the damming of the Osage River. HK began the development of this new acquisition by building a resort hotel, The Lodge of Four Seasons. In the early 1970s, Koplar's daughter, Susan Koplar Brown, began to oversee the operation of the Lodge and her husband, Peter Brown, headed up the Four Seasons land development company. Today, the Brown's children, Mark, Peter Jr., and David, continue in the family business. Aside from the Chase Park Plaza and The Lodge of Four Seasons, the Koplar and Brown names are known throughout the Midwest in association with a variety of other past and present business enterprises including KPLR-TV in St. Louis, Resort Air (later TransWorld Express), and the Jack Nicklaus-designed Porto Cima Golf Course. Perhaps more important is the family's legacy of civic involvement and philanthropy. Annually, the Brown family hosts HK's Hospital Benefit Golf Tournament, now in its 29th year, and the Summer Celebration benefiting the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center; both of which have raised millions of dollars for their respective causes. In offering the following selections from the collection, the Koplar Brown family continues in the tradition that Harold Koplar so enjoyed: the passage of ownership of an object to others who appreciate works of art.

A PAIR OF GEORGE V SILVER PILGRIM FLASKS

MARK OF SEBASTIAN GARRARD, LONDON, 1913

Details

A PAIR OF GEORGE V SILVER PILGRIM FLASKS
MARK OF SEBASTIAN GARRARD, LONDON, 1913
Each baluster form, on an oval domed and stepped base, the lower body fluted, the shoulders applied with two vine-wreathed Bacchic masks, hung with heavy chains, the domed gadrooned cover with baluster finial, the body engraved with armorials, each marked on neck, shoulder, and each base stamped Garrard England, each with wood packing case
31¾ in. (80.6 cm.) high; 671 gr. (20,874 gr.)
The arms are those of a branch of the Viennese family of Schey von Koromla who were ennobled in the second half of the nineteenth century. The Schey von Koromlas were a wealthy Hungarian Jewish banking family that intermarried with the Rothschilds in the 19th and 20th centuries. They were respected philanthropists as well. The Palais Schey von Koromla in Vienna survived Nazi rule and World War II. (2)

Lot Essay

The form of the 'pilgrim flask' has its roots in the leather water flask carried by the pilgrim or traveller of the middle ages. Particularly grand silver flasks produced in England in the late 17th and early 18th century provided the inspiration for silversmiths Edward Farrell and Robert Garrard in the 19th century. They were used as display plate, while many of the later examples by Garrard were presentation pieces from the Royal Families of Europe such as those which were given by the Royal Families of Greece and Denmark to Tsar Alexander III on his marriage to Maria Fedorovna in 1866. (English Silver Treasures from the Kremlin, 1991, no. 111.) Another Royal pair by Garrard of 1866 matching the present pair was given to King Christian IX of Denmark, and was sold in the Collection of King George I of the Hellenes, Christie's, London, 24 January 2007, lot 303.

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