Trophy (collecting)

“ Before they had edged tools of metal, the savage skill had sharpened stones or fish-bones so that they would sever the skin of the top-lock, whether of man, woman, or child. The dismal trophy would be stretched upon a wicker frame, tanned, and dried; and, after being a part of the ensigns displayed in his lodge, and worn as a trinket, it was buried with the warrior in his grave as a sort of Charon's penny for the fee on his voyage to the other shore. ”

“ To the uninitiated any coin or medal a hundred years old will seem instantly to suggest an almost prohibitive value. Nothing could be more of a mistake. As a matter of fact interesting coins and medals are within the reach of almost any one for a remarkably small outlay. Of course tremendous prices are given for tremendous rarities, but coin-and medal-collectors in America seem more interested in early coined United States cents which exhibit this slight variation or that, than in collecting for purely the beauty and the historic charm medallic art exhibits. ”

“ Once the question of the banner was settled, the trophy was taken up; its value was fixed fairly easily at about two hundred francs, old style. But the choice of the object itself caused a lengthier and almost heated discussion. ”

“ And now Mildred has tossed the new apple of discord, a wooden ball, some three inches in diameter, covered with silver, and bearing the motto which heads this chapter, as the trophy, to remain in the possession of the victors of the day, into the middle of the ring, and a dozen men are on the ground, struggling to obtain a hold of the prize. Rolling over and over, twisting, tangled like a coil of snakes, they writhe and struggle in intricate confusion. ”

“ The moral is that you should never talk when you are hunting for treasure. Wet, scared, and disheartened, the man crawled out and made homeward, carrying with him, as proof of his adventure, a case of influenza and the iron bar. The latter trophy he fashioned into a latch, in which shape it still does service on one of the doors of Ipswich. ”

“ In order to appreciate the significance of this gate it is necessary to refer once more to the history of the great trophy. Some time in the thirteenth or fourteenth century the site of the monument was converted into a fort. The trophy itself was stripped of all its original features and was built up in the form of a round and lofty watch tower. It was ornamented at its summit by two rows of arcading. These are still to be seen and on the parapet will be observed three upright pieces of stone which are the remains of the crenellations or battlements with which the tower was surmounted. ”

“ Without delay the midnight visitors unfolded their bags and got ready the excelsior. In a very few minutes—for all worked with nervous haste—they had packed away nearly every trophy the room contained. These included three flags, four banners, four silver cups, a gold tankard, a bronze statue of a bowler, a marble statue of an oarsman, a bronze tablet containing the names of the school champions for several years back, two decorated canoe paddles, and several other trophies of more or less importance.
“Moving day! moving day! ”

“ Many collectors have become such through an increasing interest in old furniture, rare china, early silver, and other classes of antiques and curios, inspired in the beginning by the acquisition of some object of the sort, personal contact with which has served as an example of the pleasure which collecting holds in store for one. The true collector is not merely “a gatherer of things,” indifferent to the guidance of a discriminating taste. ”

“ The ping-pong craze has come our length, and in imitation of other manlier sports a trophy has been instituted for competition, the said trophy to become the property of the holder after being won thirteen consecutive times. ”

“ He who was dressed in the skin walked from one temple to another; men and women followed him, shouting for joy." While we here see that the trophy was taken by the victor primarily as a proof of his prowess, we are also shown how there resulted a religious ceremony: the trophy was displayed for the supposed gratification of deities delighting in bloodshed. ”

“ I am sure that if G—— had persisted in continuing her search for the missing cup-plate, even though she had to travel on crutches, she would eventually have been successful. Therefore I say that the secret of antique-collecting is persistence.
It is persistence that brings to light the unexpected treasure. It is persistence that effects unexpected results. It is persistence that enables the antique-collector to secure for fifty cents or one dollar a genuine antique that is worth from one hundred to five hundred dollars until it is put up for sale at an auction, when it isn’t worth so much. ”

“ The dignity which enshrines a collection of war medals is something greater and fuller than that which can be ascribed to almost any other branch of curio collecting. Coins, china, furniture, and prints are all fascinating in their way, but none seem to have the same depth of interest as is possessed by the average collection of war medals. ”

“ A strong incentive to energetic effort is afforded in the way of a trophy for the school that shall have earned the greatest number of points when the series of games has ended. This prize will be of small intrinsic value, but as a trophy it will be worth the having. ”

“ Four shields bear the names, Sackett’s Harbour, Niagara, Chippewa, and Erie, with the dates on which these places witnessed the general’s deeds. At the foot of the trophy an American eagle is represented, holding in his talons an English banner. This medal is not intended to be worn: the general preserves it in a box. The American citizens are not allowed to wear any foreign decorations; even General Bernard was obliged to lay aside those he had so truly merited. General Brown showed me also a gold box, presented to him by the city of New York, together with the freedom of the city. ”

“ In the evening it may be a diamond. Your studs, however valuable, should be small.
It is well to remember in the choice of jewellery that mere costliness is not always the test of value; and that an exquisite work of art, such as a fine cameo, or a natural rarity, such as a black pearl, is a more distingué possession than a large brilliant which any rich and tasteless vulgarian can buy as easily as yourself. For a ring, the gentleman of fine taste would prefer a precious antique intaglio to the handsomest diamond or ruby that could be brought at Hunt and Roskell's. ”

“ Of decent old gold, old silver, old bronze, of old chased and jewelled artistry, were the objects that, successively produced, had ended by numerously dotting the counter, where the shopman’s slim, light fingers, with neat nails, touched them at moments, briefly, nervously, tenderly, as those of a chess-player rest, a few seconds, over the board, on a figure he thinks he may move and then may not: small florid ancientries, ornaments, pendants, lockets, brooches, buckles, pretexts for dim brilliants, bloodless rubies, pearls either too large or too opaque for value ”

“ National Prizes: First, the championship silver trophy (an elaborate silver bowl, value $450) , to be held by the winner until the next annual competition; the trophy bears the inscription, “The Military Revolver Championship of the United States of America”; the name of the winner, the year, and the score are also engraved on the trophy each year; to the winner is also awarded a gold medal (value, $25) , with the same inscription on the reverse side as appears on the trophy. ”

“ In fact, what object would he have in taking some trophy cups that he could get very little for if they were melted up, and nothing for, if he tried to sell them as they were? No one would buy them, for on the face of them they show what they are. ”

“ There is the trophy table. Let's go over. Perhaps the Gold Cup is there. If it isn't too precious to leave out in the open."
The Gold Cup was there. It was plainly—or, rather, flamingly—visible. Indeed, it smote the eye from afar. It made the surrounding array of pretty silver cups and engraved medals look tawdrily insignificant. Its presence had, already, drawn a goodly number of admirers—folk at whom the [Pg 192] guardian village constable, behind the table, stared with sour distrust. ”

“ Supremely fine examples of old furniture, china, silverware, bronzes, miniatures, and the like, have not often been “picked up for a song.” The collector must remember that the pastime of collecting is not one of recent development. Indeed, the ancients were collectors of the rare, curious, and beautiful. The Medici were renowned for gathering in their places objets de virtu, and few collectors of note of to-day could outvie the enthusiasm of Horace Walpole, who turned Strawberry Hill into a veritable museum. ”

“ In spite of infinite pains, moth and dust will corrupt the most carefully guarded collections. However, if you want to mount the head with skin and all complete, let your first care be to sketch or photograph it in profile before the skinner’s knife has touched it, in order that the man who sets up the trophy may have some idea of what it looked like in life. ”

“ If we live, the clothing will wear out and the people will make new and beautiful garments; they will gather goods and look handsome. Let us live and we will pull their old clothes to pieces for them." So he spared them and went home without a trophy. ”

“ Let me say again, the Collector’s Eye overlooks nothing, and the great point is, not to follow the fad, but to anticipate it. There is not a single class of antiques that I did not collect long before the amateurs began to “pay prices” for such things, and I am now principally engaged in collecting the antiques of the future. I know better than anybody else what the priceless old things of the future will be, because I have formed the habit of picking them up at the time when they are thrown out. ”

“ For the benefit of the uninitiated, it may be well to mention that not only does the value of a medal depend upon its state of preservation—that is to say, whether it is in mint condition, slightly rubbed, much worn, scratched, battered, re-engraved, etc.—but also upon the number of clasps that go with it. It must not be thought that collectors tolerate the indiscriminate adding of clasps to claspless medals. A medal that was awarded with, say, one additional honour cannot be turned into a three-clasp decoration by purchasing two clasps from a dealer and placing them upon the slide ribbon. ”

“ That Cups give rise to more than ordinary interest is a practical truth of which those who assisted in the institution of the original trophy have had abundant and increasing evidence year after year. ”

“ To facilitate reconciliation with their conquered foes, neither the Macedonians nor the Romans in early times erected such trophies. The usual custom was to take home the spoils, and to use them for decorating public buildings and private houses. The first example of a trophy set up after the Greek fashion occurs in 121 B.C., when Domitius Ahenobarbus celebrated his victory over the Allobroges in this manner. Although instances are not uncommon in later times, the Romans still showed a preference for setting up the memorials of victory in Rome rather than on the field of battle. ”

“ The medal was fashioned in silver; the obverse bore a military trophy of arms in the centre of which was the shield of the reigning sovereign, whilst the reverse was lettered "For Distinguished Conduct in the Field." The ribbon was red, blue, and red in equal strips. It was worn on the left breast.
The medal, as now awarded, bears a profile of the reigning monarch instead of the trophy of arms, and recipients are offered either a gratuity of £20 on discharge, or an increase of sixpence per day on their pension allowance. ”

“ When the ceremony of investiture with the Order of the Scar takes place, a large fire is made, and around it is built a low fence, inside which no one may pass except the priest and those who can show a trophy. On the outside of the fence are congregated the women and all the men who have not been fortunate enough to distinguish themselves. One by one the warriors advance to the priest, show the trophy, have it approved, and then take their place round the fire. Each man then lays the trophy on the glowing coals, and, when it is thoroughly roasted, eats it. ”

“ She went to the brigand’s chest of treasure and proceeded to examine its contents—laces, silver and gold embroideries, antique ornaments, she took carefully in her hands, seeming mentally to calculate their cost and value. Jewels that were set as necklaces, bracelets and other trinkets of feminine wear she put on, one after the other, till her neck and arms were loaded—and literally blazed with the myriad scintillations of different-colored gems. ”

“ The jawbone is consequently held as the most valued trophy, and the more a man possesses the greater he becomes in the eyes of his fellow-men." It may be added that, by the Tupis of South America, trophies of an allied kind were worn. In honoring a victorious warrior, "among some tribes they rubbed his pulse with one of the eyes of the dead, and hung the mouth upon his arm like a bracelet."
With the display of jaws as trophies, there may be named a kindred use of teeth. America furnishes instances. ”

“ The award of a medal, if of great intrinsic value, would be an unwise expenditure. The Victoria Cross is an example of a successful foundation, highly prized, but of small intrinsic value. If made of gold, it would carry no greater honor, and would be more liable to be stolen, melted down or pawned. ”

“ It is a trinket of no intrinsic value, but the men who have the right to wear it have gained it through hard-fought battles and privations without number; they prize these trophies superlatively, and their families treasure them after they are dead. Our government now issues several medals, and so the campaign medal would be no departure from our custom. It is always a pleasure to see the respect paid to some old pensioner who carries an empty sleeve, as he enters a room or climbs into a ’bus in London, with the medal of the Crimea hanging to his coat. ”