The Turf Club Cup, Curragh September Meeting, 1909. A large Irish silver pilgrim flask racing trophy, West & Son, Dublin, 1909

‘BY APPOINTMENT

WEST & SON,

Manufacturing Jewellers and Silversmiths

Have now on View the

TURF CLUB CUP

(CURRAGH SEPTEMBER MEETING),

The Trophy for above takes the form of a

VERY HANDSOME

SOLID SILVER PILGRIM BOTTLE

Which has been Manufactured entirely in our Dublin Workshops.

Showrooms,

18 & 19 COLLEGE GREEN, DUBLIN.’

(Irish Times, Dublin, Friday, 10 September 1909, p. 6d, advertisement)

‘Turf Club Cup

A MAGNIFICENT TROPHY.

We give above an etching of the Turf Club Cup, to be run for at the Curragh September Meeting next week. This magnificent trophy, the original of which was made in the years 1692, has been manufactured by Messrs. West and Co., Dublin, at their factory, Fade street, and is a credit to Irish manufacture. The Cup itself is 25 ½ inches in height and 16 inches in width, and presents a striking appearance. A detailed description of this unique specimen of antiquity is bound to be of interest, and it is as follows:-

The Pilgrim Bottle, or hunting flask, a flattened, gourd-like vessel, with long neck, stopper, handles, and suspended by chains, is of great antiquity. In early times and for actual use it was probably of leather or pewter. Exalted as it was in the 14th and 15th centuries into an ornament of the buffet, silver, and even gold set with gems, agate, and crystal, were not thought too rich to use in their production, though they retained the handles and chains of the humble traveller’s companion, which in form they simulated. The Pilgrim Bottle, as sketch[ed], belongs to the Duke of Portland, the neck being decorated with water-leaves, applied, and the base of the flask seated in a rich foliate ornaments with the foot gadrooned and beaded. The stopper also is gadrooned and surmounted by interlaced dolphins, while the handles are formed of two heads and necks of dragons over satyr masks.’ (Sport, Dublin, Saturday, 11 September 1909, p. 6c/d)

A pair of silver-gilt pilgrim bottles of this design, maker’s mark two italic Bs addorsed, London, 1692, engraved with the arms of Harley, Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, were lent by William John Arthur Charles James Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of Portland (1857-1943) to the Loan Exhibition at St. James’s Court, 1902, in aid of the Children’s Hospital, Great Ormond Street, for which see J. Starkie Gardner, Old Silver-Work, London, 1903, p. 119, Case D, no. 5 and 6, pl. LXXXVIII, fig 1.

‘News has come from Ireland of the death of the noted breeder, Mr. Joseph Lowry. It was no preconceived notion that induced him to enter into the breeding enterprise. How it came about was though his officiating at a sale at which he was auctioneer. He knocked down a mare for a small sum, but, the mare being refused, Mr. Lowry announced that he would take her himself. . . All, or nearly all, the horses bred by Mr. Lowry had incorporated in their name the word ‘’Bachelor,’’ and the reason therefor was that Mr. Lowry’s residence is called Bachelor’s Lodge. . .’ (The Mercury, Hobart, Tasmania, Wednesday, 17 September 1913, p. 8c)