Vanderbilt: A George III Silver Two-Handled Cup and Cover, Daniel Smith & Robert Sharp, London, 1787, Probably Retailed by Howard & Co., New York

Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard (1845–1924) was the daughter of William Henry Vanderbilt and Maria Louisa Kissam Vanderbilt, and granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Florence Adele Vanderbilt Twombly (1854-1952) was her younger sister. Margaret married in 1868 Elliott Fitch Shepard, a lawyer, banker, and owner of the newspaper Mail and Express, and received from her father a house at 2 W. 52nd St. - the northernmost part of William Henry's famous "triple palace" on Fifth Avenue. Florence married in 1877 Hamilton McKown Twombly, and received in turn a house at 684 Fifth Ave., at 54th street.

Howard & Co., at 264 Fifth Ave. and also in Newport, were probably the main supplier of antique English silver in New York in the 1880s and 1890s; at the same time, the style of their engraved monograms was very close to that of Tiffany & Co. Howard did business with the several branches of the Vanderbilt family, such as making in 1882 two copies for Cornelius Vanderbilt II of a pair of George II silver candelabra by Edward Wakelin, 1751 (Sotheby Park Bernet, Sept. 14-16, 1972, lots 497-98). In April 1899, Margaret L.V. Shephard gave her niece Emily Vanderbilt Sloan a Howard & Co. tea set for her wedding (Heritage Auctions, April 20, 2017, lot 74108), and the infant Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney received a Howard & Co. child's set in January 1900 (Christie's, New York, December 3, 2003, lot 541).