A big and beautiful antique circa 1910s copper pot with iron handles and tin lining. Made by Mutual of NY for the iconic Sherry’s restaurant in New York City! Sherry’s opened in the 1880s and would become a gilded age New York institution, moving three times to bigger and bigger locations before eventually closing in 1919 citing the upcoming prohibition.
On March 28, 1903, Sherry’s was the site of a now infamous dinner on horseback given by Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings, a gas company heir from Chicago who had recently opened a private 25,000-square-foot, trotting stable near 196th Street in what is now Fort Tryon Park. He had thought of having his dinner at the stable but instead rented the grand ballroom of Sherry's. Against a canvas backdrop showing an English country scene, and on a floor covered with turf, Billings and his 36 guests sat astride their mounts, who had been taken up to the fourth-floor ballroom by freight elevator. The diners ate from trays attached to their saddles and sipped Champagne through rubber tubes from iced bottles in their saddlebags.
Excellent antique condition, lots of small signs of age and use in the way of small bumps, marks and surface scratches, but no big dents or damage. There is a bit of a convex curve to the base, it was originally much more severe and was repaired and hammered back into shape as close to flat as possible, and despite the curve still sits flat on a gas burner. This piece has been professionally restored and retinned, and is ready for use!
This incredible pot holds 30 quarts and measures approximately 16” wide excluding handles by 19” deep, 21” wide across the handles; and weighs almost 30 pounds empty with walls measuring 2+mm!
I have included a few photos of the restoration and retinning process, so you can see the steps that it went through in our workshop to bring it back to its original glory. It was given an extensive hand polish, but was not polished much on our buffer because we wanted to preserve the little marks, scrapes, and signs of use that make old hotel copper so special.
Nosy gray cat not included with purchase.
