拍品專文
CAPTION: Hacienda San Miguel, Alex Shepherd's silver refinery in Batopilas, Mexico Shepherd Collection, Kiplinger Library, Courtesy The Historical Society of Washington D.C.
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THE PROPERTY OF A TEXAS FAMILY
AN IMPORTANT SILVER FLASK OF HISTORICAL INTEREST
MARK OF GORHAM MFG. CO., PROVIDENCE, 1888
細節
AN IMPORTANT SILVER FLASK OF HISTORICAL INTEREST
MARK OF GORHAM MFG. CO., PROVIDENCE, 1888
Shaped oblong, the front with an etched scene of the Batopilas silver mine, with applied cactus along the border, the reverse with an etched portrait of Alex Shepherd and the inscription Alex Shepherd to William G. Moore 1888, the hinged cover inscribed Batopilas, marked on base
7¾ in. high; 20 oz.
MARK OF GORHAM MFG. CO., PROVIDENCE, 1888
Shaped oblong, the front with an etched scene of the Batopilas silver mine, with applied cactus along the border, the reverse with an etched portrait of Alex Shepherd and the inscription Alex Shepherd to William G. Moore 1888, the hinged cover inscribed Batopilas, marked on base
7¾ in. high; 20 oz.
來源
Col. William George Moore (1829-1898), gift from Alexander Robey Shepherd (1835-1902)
By descent to the present owner
William Moore was born in Washington, D.C., where he spent his life in various military and civic offices. Following the Civil War, he became private secretary to President Johnson and a White House insider. In 1870, he started a partnership with Alex "Boss" Shepherd, a notorious political boss and speculator. After their business relationship dissolved in the early 1870s, Moore joined the National Metropolitan Bank and in 1886 was appointed Superintendant of Police, a position he held until his death in 1898.
This flask belongs to a group of twelve known examples, all specially commissioned and presented by Alex Shepherd to friends and associates in positions to promote his Mexican silver mine venture. Shepherd made his name in Washington, D.C. as a plumbing contractor, and became Governor of the District during the corrupt period under U.S. Grant. By 1876, however, Shepherd went bankrupt and in 1879 decided to invest in a silver mine in Batopilas, Chihuahua, Mexico. He moved there permanently in 1879, using his engineering expertise to build tunnels, a bridge, and a 3-mile aqueduct. The population of the town grew from 300 in 1880 to 4,000 at the time of his death, and he was known there as "El Patron Grande."
Shepherd visited Washington in 1887 to promote the mine at Batopilas and it was on that trip that he ordered these presentation flasks from Gorham. Five were given to Mexican government officials, and of the seven given to Americans, four are in museum collections (two are in the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution, one is at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the fourth is at the Brooklyn Museum; the three other flasks known in addition to the present example were sold at Christie's, October 13, 1983, lot 17, Sotheby's, January 23, 1992, lot 56, and Christie's, January 26, 1995, lot 351).
See Katherine S. Howe, "The Batopilas Flask: A Nineteenth-Century Tale of Money, Mines, and Silver Manufacture," The Winterthur Portfolio, 1988, pp. 63-77, and Marks of Achievement: Four Centuries of American Presentation Silver, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1987, p. 175.
By descent to the present owner
William Moore was born in Washington, D.C., where he spent his life in various military and civic offices. Following the Civil War, he became private secretary to President Johnson and a White House insider. In 1870, he started a partnership with Alex "Boss" Shepherd, a notorious political boss and speculator. After their business relationship dissolved in the early 1870s, Moore joined the National Metropolitan Bank and in 1886 was appointed Superintendant of Police, a position he held until his death in 1898.
This flask belongs to a group of twelve known examples, all specially commissioned and presented by Alex Shepherd to friends and associates in positions to promote his Mexican silver mine venture. Shepherd made his name in Washington, D.C. as a plumbing contractor, and became Governor of the District during the corrupt period under U.S. Grant. By 1876, however, Shepherd went bankrupt and in 1879 decided to invest in a silver mine in Batopilas, Chihuahua, Mexico. He moved there permanently in 1879, using his engineering expertise to build tunnels, a bridge, and a 3-mile aqueduct. The population of the town grew from 300 in 1880 to 4,000 at the time of his death, and he was known there as "El Patron Grande."
Shepherd visited Washington in 1887 to promote the mine at Batopilas and it was on that trip that he ordered these presentation flasks from Gorham. Five were given to Mexican government officials, and of the seven given to Americans, four are in museum collections (two are in the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution, one is at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the fourth is at the Brooklyn Museum; the three other flasks known in addition to the present example were sold at Christie's, October 13, 1983, lot 17, Sotheby's, January 23, 1992, lot 56, and Christie's, January 26, 1995, lot 351).
See Katherine S. Howe, "The Batopilas Flask: A Nineteenth-Century Tale of Money, Mines, and Silver Manufacture," The Winterthur Portfolio, 1988, pp. 63-77, and Marks of Achievement: Four Centuries of American Presentation Silver, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1987, p. 175.