GUEST: My great-great-uncle, Henry Grant Morris, was an architect. He designed the New York Engineers' Building in New York City. When the work was done, this was one of the things that was handed out to the people who came to the big banquet.
APPRAISER: This was given out to people who attended a dinner in 1907 at the dedication of the Engineers' Club in New York City, on West 40th Street. Andrew Carnegie gave a million and a half dollars to build this club. It's inscribed here on the base, "The Engineers' Club, December 9th, 1907." And it's stamped "Tiffany & Co." And it's also stamped "Tiffany & Co." on the bottom. At this time, Louis Comfort Tiffany was the president of Tiffany & Co., but up until that time, his father had been the founder and the president, and Tiffany had his own interior design company, and he had a foundry and a factory where he made the famous Tiffany lamps and other metal work. And it's thought that Tiffany himself actually designed this piece.
GUEST: Cool, I had always wondered that because I was never able to find a signature on it.
APPRAISER: It's in the literature, and a number of art historians feel that he actually designed it. And it was probably cast at Tiffany Studios, which was in Corona, Queens. Those pieces are usually signed "Tiffany Studios." However, this isn't, and it's thought now that since Tiffany was the president of Tiffany & Co. at this time, that part of it, giving it away as a souvenir, was a promotional thing for Tiffany & Co.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: It has this thistle pattern, and Andrew Carnegie was of Scottish descent, and the thistle is the symbol of Scotland. It's nicely done, has wonderful detail with the foliage here at the bottom, and it's bronze, which is a copper color, and there's this gold patina on it, which, luckily, has not been monkeyed with or polished. So it's really charming, early form of swag, just like what people get at the Academy Awards these days. These were the days when these societies were very active and they were like men's clubs. They really have faded out. There are very few of these clubs left in New York. It's a great document, and the building is still standing. The Engineers' Club was on West 40th Street, the building was sold and passed through a couple of hands, and now it's a condo apartment building. In terms of value, in a gallery setting, this piece would bring between $2,000 and $3,000.
GUEST: Well, thank you very much. It's something we treasure and it's so tactile, when you put it out, people just have to touch it, because it's just... you wanna hold it.
