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Yorkshire Chess History |
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Contents: |
Löwenthal Cup |
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Besides being prominent nationally as a player and writer, Johann Jacob Löwenthal had been secretary of St. George’s Chess Club in London. After his death they instituted a club championship trophy, named after him as a memorial to him, using funds originally meant to for supporting Lowenthal financially.
In an article in the Dundee Evening Telegraph of 13/07/1922, it was reported that in 1878 [sic – meant 1876] members of the St. George’s Chess Club and others started to fund to raise money for Lowenthal who, however, died before the appeal for donations closed, at which point the fund stood at £250, of which Lowenthal never received a penny. Evidently, about £100 of this fund was instead used in the purchase of the Lowenthal Cup as a memorial to him instead of his financial support.
The cup bears the London sterling silver hallmark for 1877, and the maker’s mark of George Angell, 51 Compton Street, Clerkenwell.
The cup has a lid on top of which is a mounted St. George, slaying the Dragon (the scaly kind, not the Sicilian variation). Around the raised inner part of the lid are indentations suggestive of the crenulations around the top of a rook. Around the brim of the lid are four curiously seated knights in mail. Figures of a human king, queen, bishop, and knight surround the stem. There are no handles. (Click here for image of trophy.)
The trophy was contested at least from 1878 to 1895, as the winners’ names, with dates of their wins, chronologically accumulated, are listed on one side of the bowl, as follows (click here for image of inscription):
Lowenthal Winners ------------------------------
The list of winners appears in the photograph to continue with one winner in the next panel round, but the writer omitted to make a note of that name (James E. .....) when inspecting the trophy, but that name was recorded in the Hastings & St Leonard’s Observer of 01/05/1954 as that of Dr. James E. Manilove.
The St George’s Chess Club went into decline in time, and there came the point when the club’s property was sold off. According to the Hastings & St Leonard’s Observer of 01/05/1954, the Lowenthal Cup was purchased by the president of the Sussex Chess Association, Mr. Alfred Francis Waterhouse (b. 17/11/1856, Dulwich, London; d. 13/02/1922, Brighton). Upon his death, the trophy passed in 1922 to the British Chess Association and came to serve as the county championship trophy, as indicated in the inscription on the bowl, on the opposite side to the above list of winners, which reads as follows, with no apostrophe in “Georges” (click here for image of inscription):
Names of winning counties were originally inscribed on the flattish base of the cup, including winners from the start of the competition in 1908 up to 1921. In time addition of the now-traditional cheap plastic metal-banded plinth was found necessary. For a list of winning counties see English Counties’ Championship.
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Created 08/07/2012 |
Copyright © 2012 - 2025 Stephen John Mann |
Last Updated 12/04/2025 |