On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Morgan Cup
Sailing trophies were among the grandest and best-publicized form of "presentation silver" produced in the late 1800s, and Tiffany & Co. secured many of these coveted commissions. When Charles J. Paine's (1833–1916) sloop Volunteer won the innaugural Morgan Cup race from Vineyard Haven to Marblehead on August 8, 1887, it was awarded this lavish silver and ivory tankard valued at $500. The cup's imagniative deocrative scheme was inspired by works of art from East Asia and the Islamic world collected by Edward C. Moore, head of Tiffany's silver division. Its scluptural dragon-shaped handle could refer to Chinese or Japanese sources, and numerous objects in Moore's collection feature dragons that may have served as inspiration. Often associated with water and the sea, the dragon was a fitting adornment for a sailing prize. Tiffany resued this handle design on a number of its grand pieces of silver and made various vessels out of elephant tusk during the 1880s and 1890s.
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