Vanderbilt Cup Races

A 1905 Vanderbilt Cup Race Banquet Gold Medallion Manufactured by Dieges & Clust purchased at auction

Four days after the 1905 Vanderbilt Cup Race, the New York Press Club celebrated the race participants at a dinner banquet at their headquarters at 116 Nassau Street, Manhattan.

The gold medallion ribbons were presented to all the Press Club's banquet guests. It reads:

Souvenir

Banquet Tendered the Competitors in the Vanderbilt Road Race

This is the only Vanderbilia that I know that refers to the race as the "Vanderbilt Road Race."

The reverse side of the medallion reads:

At the

New York Press Club, Organized, December 4, 1872

Oct. 18, 1905

Dieges & Clust

An interesting and appropriate logo can also be seen for the NY Press Club depicting a quill pen breaking a sword, because as we know, 'The Pen is mightier than the sword.

Reception and Banquet to the Contestants in the Vanderbilt Cup Race

These medallions were given out at the October 18, 1905 banquet..

The interesting 'driver-themed' menu items offered at the banquet.

The only known photo of the banquet. A little difficult to recognize any drivers.

The New York Press Club where the banquet was held is no longer at 116 Nassau Street in Manhattan. It is now occupied by the Abacus Bank.

Dieges & Clust

Located just a few short blocks from the Press Club on John St. NYC, was the manufacturer of the medallions, Dieges & Clust. 

They produced many medals, including the Spanish–American War Medal, the 1904 Olympic Medal, the Eagle Scout medal (from 1916 to 1920), New York State World War I Service Medal, the Medal of Honour, and the Titanic-Carpathia Medals (at the request of "The Unsinkable" Mrs. Molly Brown). They made baseball's first Most Valuable Player Awards and many Baseball Press Pins as well as Lou Gehrig's farewell plaque. They also cast the Heisman Trophy (in New York and later Providence, Rhode Island) from its inception in 1935 through late 1979 when the company was sold to Herff Jones (a division of Carnation) on January 1, 1980.

Perhaps the height of Dieges & Clust's production were the 1920s trophies known in sports collecting circles as "The Five Figural Spalding Baseball Trophies". The various trophies depict a baseball player pitching, catching, batting, playing first base, or playing in the outfield. The proportions of the figures and the detail (of the faces, fingers, stitching in the baseball gloves and shoelaces) are remarkable. They fetch up to $5,000 at auction, relatively high for a silver-plated trophy on a wooden base