Sterling silver (31 oz.) first-prize permanent award trophy, The First President’s Cup, with decoratively engraved faces at top of each of the six scrolled feet. Winners and the dates they won engraved around sides, including: John Brooks, 1900; Charles Blaire(sp.) [Blair] Macdonald, 1901; Walter J. Travis, 1902 & 1911; F.J.O. Alsop, 1903; A.M. Reed, 1904; A.L. White, 1905; Jerome D. Travers, 1906; Frederick Herreshoff, 1907, 1909-10; Edward Clark III, 1908; and Henry W. Stucklen, 1912. Maker’s mark of Black, Starr & Frost (of New York), with their name and eagle logo, on bottom. Measures approximately 4" tall and 7" in diameter, plus handles.
This is The First President’s Cup, (later changed to and now known as The Isham Cup), which was awarded to the top finisher at the annual amateur tournament played at the Ekwanok Country Club, Manchester-in-the-Mountains, Vermont (organized in 1899). From the Ekwanok club history book: “Those surviving the two qualifying rounds were to be entered in a match play competition with the winner receiving a small replica of the trophy, which was a large decorative punch bowl. The name of the winner was to be engraved on the larger trophy which would remain in the possession of the Club. The competitors from the beginning of the tournament until the depression closed it in 1932 were a who’s who list of golfers of the time. Charles B. Macdonald, who won the trophy in 1901, had won the U.S. Amateur championship in 1895 and was medalist in the Amateur in 1897 and 1899. On his winning ‘The President’s Cup,’ the N.Y. Times gave the following account: ‘C.B. Macdonald played in championship form with 169 in the medal rounds to tie, and eventually beat in the playoff, Mortimer M. Singer of Fox Fills…Walter Travis, three times winner of the U.S. Amateur and runner-up in the U.S. Open in 1902, played for the President’s Cup that same year and won it…also…in 1911. Fred Herreshoff, a member of Ekwanok, who was twice runner-up and one time medalist in the U.S. Amateur, won The President’s Cup in ’07, ’09, and ’10. Jerry Travers, a four time winner of the U.S. Amateur and later to win the Open in 1915, won the Cup in 1906. The list of great golfers, many inscribed on the Cup, went on and on and the members of Ekwanok and the community were thrilled to witness the brand of golf demonstrated by these championship players. Six years later the name of the President’s Cup was changed to The First President’s Cup and at the time Mr. Isham’s death in 1911 the Board changed it again to The Isham Cup which it has remained ever since [as of 1974]…In 1903, President Robertson of the USGA invited Ekwanok to be one of four clubs to hold an invitation tournament…Ekwanok was chosen as being ‘one of the finest courses in the country’ and the Club was requested to have it in first class condition…The year 1914 was perhaps the most important tournament year in Ekwanok history. The Isham Cup Tournament was held the early part of the summer with Fred A. Martin (Ekwanok) the winner, and later the end of August, the U.S. Amateur Championship provided an exhibition of golf that the membership will perhaps never see again at Ekwanok.” The 1912 winner, Henry W. Stucken, is pictured on page 32 of the club history book, seen putting on the 11th green in 1912, defeating Walter J. Travis. Also, pp. 133-134 on Charles Blair’s Scotland’s Gift, Golf, he writes: “[In 1901] I was invited by Edward S. Isham, who was president of the Ekwanok Country Club…to stop with him and play. Besides the president’s cup, which was for the low score, Mr. Isham presented a golf medal for the winner of the tournament…In the play-off with Singer I won the cup for the qualifying round and the medal as the winner of the tournament.” A History of Ekwanok, 75th Anniversary Year (1974), pp. 11, 29-30, 32, 52, 54.