Lot 585

Description

The Tirrana Cup, sterling silver wine pitcher with handle, decorated with filigree handle with flowers and leaves, attached to the handle and engraved with parrots and birds on branches on the body of the cup, in the Japanese style, inscribed as the "Tirranna Cup, 1887 won by D.P Dickson's (horse) "Lord Cochrane"", height 315mm, diameter 105mm, by Hardy Bros, Sydney, hallmarked London, 1884, weight 660 grams. As new, housed in its own presentation carrying case together with documentation in a large cliplock folder.

The Tirranna Picnic Races were established in 1855 at Tirranna, a property outside Goulburn, New South Wales. The Cup was believed to be first presented in 1895 but the evidence of this cup brings it to an earlier date of at least 1887. From the early days of colonisation, picnic races have been a feature of rural life in Australia and the famous Bong Bong has established itself as the most famous of these picnic races. The basic business of the Bong Bong Club is to conduct the annual Bong Bong Picnic Race Club Race Meeting which includes the running of the Bong Bong Cup and which normally is held on the second Wednesday in November. The meeting is conducted at the Club's wholly owned 170 acre racecourse, "Wyeera", situated on Kangaloon Road, Glenquarry (sometimes referred to as East Bowral). The Bong Bong Picnic Race Club was formed in 1886 and soon passed the earlier picnic races at Tirrana. The Tirrana Cup race last ran in 1930.