Mark of Towle, pattern number 7131, 1/2 pint capacity, with reeded doubled handles, engraved "Presented to / Dr. and Mrs. John P. Gifford / by the / University Club / of Randolph, Vermont / October fourth, / Nineteen Hundred and nine."

5 1/4 in.

6.35 total troy oz.

Private Collection, Aiken, South Carolina

From the engraving and dates, the cup was likely presented to John Pearl Gifford, who established a reputation as an outstanding general practitioner and surgeon in Randolph, Vermont. Born in 1871, the son of a well-known farming family in Randolph, he graduated first in his class from Dartmouth in 1894 and commenced studying medicine the following year. The University Club in the engraving was established at the turn of the 20th century by fourteen men at Dartmouth, with John being one of these founding fourteen. In his last year of medical school at Dartmouth, young Gifford was convicted of body snatching which threatened to derail his career. His arrest was greeted with sympathy by the medical school faculty who rallied to pay his court-mandated fine at the time.

After traveling the world to hone his medical skills, he brought them home to Randolph, opening his own practice in 1899 at the age of 28. In 1903, Dr. Gifford founded the Randolph Sanatorium, which survives to this day lasting through some difficult times including Dr. Gifford’s two years at war, the Depression, and even a fire.
John died in 1933, due to an infection he developed after scalpel injury to his finger while in surgery on a patient, and thereafter the Randolph Sanatorium was quickly renamed to Gifford Memorial Hospital.

Some scattered light scratches and small dents.