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Yachting trophy for 1933 Vice Commodore's Cup, N.Y.Y.C.,

Yachting trophy for 1933 Vice Commodore's Cup, N.Y.Y.C.,
click for more pictures for item 2274
 
$250.00

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a Sheffield plated ale jug circa 1820 inscribed as shown in second enlargement, height 9 inches to top of finial, bottom diameter 4 5/8 inches.

William Adams Walker Stewart (1876 - 1960) graduated from Princeton with the class of 1897 and practiced law in New York City. As Vice Commodore of the N.Y.Y.C. during some hard years, he managed to find a way to increase the number of yachts competing in the schooner class ("Everyone knows how little of this expensive type of yachting has been going on since the halcyon days of the 1920's") by reducing the required length to fifty feet for vessels with two or more masts.

Though we know little of the man, his droll sense of humor comes through in a response to one of the never ending requests for more information from his beloved Alma Mater:

"The reason you have to request this letter five times is that I have nothing to say in it, and I am only writing it to save you further expense for stamps. I have a distinct recollection that, some time since, I sent you in reply to a searching inquisition, a complete record of everything I had done since leaving college. If I have done anything further, I have forgotten it. Your touching faith, born no doubt of the replies received from your other classmates, that I must have done something worth recording is unfortunately unjustified. Sincerely yours, W. A. W. Stewart. "

Of "Flytie" herself we know even less, though the inscription on a silver bowl currently up for grabs on the big bad auction site shows that she managed to win first prize in 1932, as well.

There is some sloppy soldering where lid joins handle (see third photo) which may well be an old repair, but the overall condition is excellent, and the interior of this capacious five pint jug is clean, food safe, and ready to be filled once again with good beer. With this broad base, you can bring her on board and not have to worry about capsizing the container while your boat's at the mooring.

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