This is the first article in the Goelet Cups series, on the Schooners trophies. The next article will cover the Sloops trophies.
In 2019, the Redwood Library in Newport, Rhode Island, hosted an exhibition on the Goelet Cups. Many thanks to Michelle Farias from the Redwood Library for providing the PDF materials from the exhibition. Special thanks also to Dr. Mark Geist for the beautiful, clear, and detailed photos taken onsite.
One day, while browsing online by chance, I saw photos of the Goelet Cups from the Redwood Library exhibition. I was stunned — it was love at first sight. Since then, I have been searching everywhere for information. After years of collecting — browsing various museum collections, auction records, and silverware books — I compiled this article. I hope everyone can also contribute more information about the Goelet Cups.
(Ogden Goelet | Leon Bonnat, 1891 | Collection of Salve Regina University | Photo by Dr. Mark Geist)
Ogden Goelet (1851–1897) was a member of New York Yacht Club (NYYC) from 1880 until his death in 1897. He owned many yachts including Norseman, a large schooner, and Mayflower, a state-of-the-art and well-appointed steam yacht. Although he was an avid yachtsman, he was not a racer himself. He began donating Goelet Cups the second year of his membership at NYYC, offering the awards for the two most popular classes of racing boats at the time: sloops, single-masted boats, and the larger two-masted schooners. The races were to be held when the NYYC was in Newport on its Annual Cruise, a tradition that harks back to the Club's founding in 1844. For the duration of the sixteen-year period he donated $1,000 each summer for the schooner prize and $500 for the sloop prize. It was not uncommon in the late 19th century for NYYC members to donate trophies for races. What is unique about this group is its scale, duration, and legacy.
When Goelet died in 1897 the races and substantial prizes he sponsored came to an end. Responding to the loss immediately, two NYYC members stepped forward offering to continue the tradition. The offer letter that was opened first, and thus accepted, was that of John Jacob Astor IV who volunteered to continue the gift in perpetuity. With a lapse of one year, and except in wartime, the tradition of the Goelet Cups has continued unbroken with their successor, the Astor Cups, which are still raced for today.
Schooners, 1882
Awarded to: Montauk
Designer: Charles Osborne
Maker: Whiting Manufacturing Co.
Museum: MET, a Promised Gift of The Schwartz Family Foundation and The Schwartz Foundation
(Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
（Photo: Dr. Mark Geist）
The first Goelet Cup awarded for schooners was this enameled silver pitcher and tray presented to the yacht Montauk in 1882. Many of the elements that appear in the pair — sinuous seahorses, leaping dolphins, and mythological sea beings — show up in the fanciful designs of the Goelet Cup sailing trophies.
The award was designed by Charles Osborne for Whiting Manufacturing Co., who worked with both Whiting and Tiffany & Co. and is associated with several of the trophies in this show. An elaborate illustration of the work signed by Osborne was printed in 1883 in the publications Art Amateur and The Jeweler's Circular, making it the first of many Goelet Cups to be promoted and covered in the press.
Schooners, 1883
Awarded to: Montauk
Maker: Whiting Manufacturing Co.
Schooners, 1884
Awarded to: Grayling
Designer: James H. Whitehouse, Charles Osborne, Eugene J. Soligny
Maker: Tiffany & Co.
Museum: MET (lent by the New York Yacht Club)
(Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
（Photo: Dr. Mark Geist）
（Photo: Dr. Mark Geist）
The body of the 1884 Schooner Cup is shaped as a vessel with the figure of Poseidon on the prow. Six cast dolphins flank the craft. It was created by some of the top designers employed by Tiffany & Co. at the time: James H. Whitehouse, Charles Osborne, and Eugene J. Soligny.
Both this cup and the 1886 Schooner Cup, also won by Grayling, were exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, as part of Tiffany & Co.'s award-winning display. Tiffany & Co. borrowed a total of six Goelet Cups (of the 11 the firm had supplied by that date) from their owners to display at the Exposition. More than half of the total prize cups in the Tiffany exhibition were Goelet Cups.
Schooners, 1885
Awarded to: Fortuna
Designer: Charles Osborne
Maker: Tiffany & Co.
Museum: Indianapolis Museum of Art
(Source: Indianapolis Museum of Art)
(Photo: Dr. Mark Geist)
This spectacular piece is one of the most sculptural Goelet Cups. Every element relates to the sea with the spout of the pitcher in the form of a shell and the handle a sea creature. The churning waves and dolphins on the shoulder of the piece transition to the body, which is encircled by Tritons rising from the silver, their tails swirling down to form the base and their fins flipping up along the edge.
Schooners, 1886
Awarded to: Grayling
Maker: Tiffany & Co.
Ownership: New York Yacht Club
(Ellen McDermott Photography)
(Ellen McDermott Photography)
(photo: Dr. Mark Geist)
The 1886 Goelet Cup for Schooners was won by Grayling, owned by Latham A. Fish. The monumental vase features an expertly chased mermaid in swirling waves with figures of the winds blowing and churning up the water around her. The reverse of the vessel reads "Goelet Cup 1886." The winner's name, Grayling, is acid-etched in an ornamental manner around the neck of the vessel.
Schooners, 1888
Awarded to: Sachem
Maker: Whiting Manufacturing Co.
Ownership: Family of Charles D. Owen
(photo: Dr. Mark Geist)
Sachem, the white vessel on the far right of the back wall, won two consecutive schooner cups, both of which were featured in Whiting Manufacturing Co. advertisements. This 1888 prize features a female figure and horses in the central medallion. Most Goelet Cups include the date of the race and the winner's name; this piece also includes the full race results, seen here on the reverse.
Schooners, 1890
Awarded to: Merlin
Maker: Tiffany & Co.
Museum: Boston Museum of Fine Arts (lent by Forbes Family)
The elaborate silver ewer was awarded to John M. Forbes, captain of the schooner Merlin, for winning the 1890 Goelet Cup for schooners, a sailing race held annually by the New York Yacht Club from 1882–97. Costing $1,000, the trophy features Tiffany & Co.'s spectacular craftsmanship and, appropriately, images of mermaids and mermen swimming in swirls of water, seaweed, shells, and other aquatic imagery.
Schooners, 1891
Awarded to: General Paine's Volunteer
Maker: Whiting Manufacturing Co.
Ownership: New York Yacht Club
(Ellen McDermott Photography)
(photo: Dr. Mark Geist)
(photo: Dr. Mark Geist)
The monumental 1891 Goelet Cup for Schooners, awarded to General Paine's Volunteer, features a dynamic design of seahorses and swirling waves. The ornamentation was achieved by combining a variety of silversmithing techniques including chasing, repoussé, and acid etching. A drawing of the cup appeared in Whiting Manufacturing Co. advertisements, showing a lid that no longer survives.
Volunteer won three Goelet Cups and defended the America's Cup as a sloop (a single-masted boat). In 1891 Charles Paine had Volunteer lengthened and altered to a schooner (a double-masted boat). As such, she won the 1891 Goelet Schooner Cup. She is the only yacht to win a Goelet Cup as both a sloop and a schooner.
Schooners, 1893
Awarded to: Lasca
Maker: Tiffany & Co.
Auction Record: $300,000 (2020)
Auction: A Tiffany & Co. Silver Yachting Trophy: Goelet Cup, New York, 1893. | Lot #74033 | Heritage Auctions
Museum: Yale University Art Gallery
(Source: Yale University Art Gallery)
Accompanied by research from the Tiffany & Co. Archives dated October 2020, the shell-form cup is fluted in waves cresting in a seafoam rim, with a seagrass cartouche on each side. The shell is supported by a mermaid draped in seagrass, intertwined with a dolphin rising from a base of shells and seagrass as if emerging from a wave.
The cup is recorded simply in the Tiffany & Co. Archives as Yacht-Prize-Schooner-Goelet, with a weight of 417.0 oz. However, an 1893 Harper's Weekly article notes, "Messrs. Tiffany seem to have outdone themselves this year, especially in the schooner prize, which is beautifully proportioned..."
Each year from 1882 until 1897, the Goelet $1,000 cup for schooners was presented during the races off Newport held during the New York Yacht Club Cruise. While the 1893 Goelet cup is majestic in design, the race was lackluster, with little breeze and fog, and the events that followed were a fiasco. As reported in the New York Times on August 14, "It now turns out that the Lasca won the Goelet schooner cup as Volunteer had not been properly entered. Through some oversight she was not officially entered by Mr. J. Malcolm Forbes. She sailed over the course, and the committee took her time and then decided to examine the case. To-day, in spite of all the protests of Mr. Forbes, the cup has been awarded to Mr. J.E. L. Brooks's schooner Lasca, the boat that finished second to the Volunteer."
Built in 1892, Lasca was "a centerboarder, 119 feet overall, designed by Cary Smith for John E. Brooks, won twice [1892 NYYC Cruise races]. She had a spoon bow and proved very successful." John Parkinson, The History of the New York Yacht Club, p. 149.
Lasca's owner, John E. Brooks, a third-generation clothier, was the grandson of Henry Sands Brooks, founder of H. & D.H. Brooks & Co., which became Brooks Brothers in 1850. In 1896, the year John E. Brooks retired as the company's president, he introduced the button-down collar to American fashion, inspired by the uniforms of English polo players. (Heritage Auctions)
Schooners, 1894
Awarded to: Emerald
Maker: Whiting Manufacturing Co.
Ownership: Maxwell Family
(Photo: Dr. Mark Geist)
Measuring 3 feet high, this is the tallest of the known Goelet prizes. The narrow vase features a figure of Poseidon rising out of the water as dolphins circle him. The reverse has the full race results for the schooner challenge acid-etched into the surface. This was one of two cups won by Emerald, owned by John Rogers Maxwell, and featured in Whiting Manufacturing Co. advertisements.
Schooners, 1896
Awarded to: Colonia
Designer: Stanford White
Maker: Tiffany & Co.
Ownership: Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club
(Photo: Dr. Mark Geist)
While the races continued for another year, this was the last Goelet Cup for Schooners awarded. Designed by architect Stanford White for Tiffany & Co., the bowl features two large Nereids forming the handles. The body is acid-etched with the name of the winner, Colonia, and includes the race results on the back of the vessel. The cup sits atop a base supported by cast turtle feet.