The ‘Entente Cordial’ silver champagne cooler for the British Motor Boat Club

The ‘Entente Cordial’ silver champagne cooler for the British Motor Boat Club, 1905. This deep cylindrical bowl by Charles Townley and John Thomas is of heavy gauge with a raised circular foot, two acanthus scroll handles and cut-card acanthus leaves around the base. The inscription on the silver reads ‘The “Entente Cordial” Cup Presented to the British Motor Boat Club by Mrs Walker Munroe, 1905, won by 1905 Aug 7 “Napier II” J. Scott Montagu, Lionel de Rothschild, 1906 Aug 6 ‘Yarrow Napier’ Lionel de Rothschild.’ Assayed for Charles Townley and John Thomas, London 1904, retailed by F B Thomas & Co. Provenance: Lionel de Rothschild, Exbury and J Scott Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu Edmund de Rothschild, Exbury. The ‘Entente Cordiale Cup’ was the prize at the club’s race meeting at Burnham on Crouch in August 1905 in honour of a visit from the French Navy. Lionel and John had great success in the new Napier II and Achillée millefeuille Napier motor boats. The Napier II was fitted with the largest six-cylinder engine ever built by Selwyn Edge. In 1905 the pair won a 35 mile race across the Arcachon basin, France, in a time of 2 hours, 2 minutes, 26 seconds. The following year they broke Dorothy Levitt’s world water speed record at 28.8 knots and in 1907 won the prestigious ‘Perla del Mediterraneo’ on Lionel’s boat, the ‘Flying Fish’. Selwyn Francis Edge (1868–1940) was a British entrepreneur who successfully became ‘a motor car, cycle, launch, and flying machine manufacturer’. He built and raced de Dion...

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