Lot 106: 2 Sterling Silver Trophies Presented to Dr. Wm. Upjohn, 1920s

Two 1920s Gorham sterling silver trophies, both with engraved presentation inscriptions to Dr. William E. Upjohn, the founder and president of the Upjohn Company. The larger trophy measures 17 inches high x 13 1/2 inches wide at handles x 7 inches deep and is inscribed to Dr. Upjohn “From the Sales Department and Executive Staff of the New York Branch at the Dedication of the Upjohn Building in New York 1921,” with an inscription on the verso, “An Institution is the Lengthened Shadow of One Man – Emerson”. The smaller trophy, of similar form, measures 11 1/2 inches high x 9 inches wide at handles by 5 1/2 inches in diameter and is engraved with the Upjohn logo of a hand atop a pill with the logo “The Originator of Friable Pills” and inscribed to Dr. Upjohn “by Employees of the Home Office and Laboratories of the Upjohn Company, Kalamazo, Michigan Dec. 10 1926. Large trophy: 59.93 oz troy. Smaller trophy: 22.74 oz troy. Combined weight: 82.67 oz troy. Note: Dr. William Erastus Upjohn (1853-1932) is best known for his 1885 invention of the “friable pill”, a medicine designed to be easily crushed into powder to make it more digestible. He established the Upjohn Pill and Granule Company to produce the pills, employing an ad campaign that showed the pills being crushed by a thumb. The company grew into a global pharmaceutical giant. Dr. Upjohn was also politically active and served as the first mayor of Kalamazoo, Michigan, under a new commission-manager government he helped establish. 

PROVENANCE: The estate of Dr. Ian M. Mathison, Murfreesboro TN and Big Rapids, MI.

CONDITION: 1/8 inch dent to top lip of large trophy, otherwise both trophies in excellent condition.