A LARGE EDWARDIAN SILVER PRESENTATION PILGRIM FLASK, CARRINGTON & CO., LONDON, 1906 oval bottle form, on a gadroon foot below a band of lobed strapwork, inscribed between applied masks hung with a heavy chain, strapwork neck rising to a band of stiff leafage, the hinged gadrooned lid with openwork strapwork finial, in original fitted oak case 55cm high excluding ebonised wood plinth, 5625gr (180oz) Provenance: Presented in 1908 by the Prince of Wales to G. Cecil Whitaker and thence by family descent. The presentation inscription reads: Royal Harwich Yacht Club. / Presented by The Commodore / George, Prince of Wales / First Prize in The / International A Class Race / won by / "Cicely" / 1st. June 1908 The Royal Harwich Yacht club was formed in 1845 and by the end of the 19th century its regatta had become the opening event of the season for the big yacht class. Most of the famous racing yachts sailed there, including Britannia owned by Edward VII. His son, the Prince of Wales (later George V) had been commodore since 1895. The 1908 regatta opened with the A Class race, won by Mr G. Cecil Whitaker's recently acquired Cicely, beating the German Emperor's Meteor amongst others. The first prize was this pilgrim flask. The Cicely was launched in 1902, designed by William Fife for the financier and Olympic yachtsman Mr Cecil Quentin. The shallow draft yacht, sporting a clipper bow and measuring 114 feet in length, proved to be very fast. Much to Kaiser Wilhelm's fury, his new yacht Meteor III, also launched in 1902, was outclassed by the Cicely. Mr Whitaker acquired her in 1908, but following his success that year, as well as the success of Krupp's Germania, the Kaiser commissioned a new and more successful Meteor for 1909. In 1911 Mr Whitaker commissioned a new yacht Waterwitch, specifically to beat Meteor, but this boat proved most unsatisfactory and was stripped, many of the parts being used on Whitaker's much more successful Margherita. This pilgrim flask (or bottle) is a copy of a flask made for General Charles Churchill (1656-1714) in about 1710. Produced by the London based Huguenot silversmith Pierre Platel, the original flask can be seen today in the British Galleries at the V. & A. (Museum No. M.854). Although the form started as a medieval pilgrim's leather water bottle, by the late 17th century especially grand silver examples were being made in England. In the mid 19th century silversmiths started to reproduce these impressive objects and they were popular as Royal presentation pieces, such as those given by the Royal Families of Greece and Denmark to Tsar Alexander III on his marriage to Maria Fedorovna in 1866 (English Silver Treasures from the Kremlin , 1991, no. 111). For a pair of smaller flasks of the same pattern, Chapple & Mantel, London, 1892, see Sotheby's London, 7 June 2005, lot 81, and for a pair of the same size, Edward Barnard & Sons Ltd., London, 1927, see Sotheby's New York, 14 April 2005, lot 137.