The Goodman Trophy: A Grant Macdonald London Restoration

This month, we saw the return of an old friend to the Grant Macdonald London workshop: The Goodman Trophy.

Its story is the very essence of Grant Macdonald’s mission to design and produce gifts and commissions, that are passed down through the years. Whether passed among family members, members of organisations or, as in this case – winners of competitions, in the words of Grant “Silver and precious metals, unlike other luxury items, go on forever. That’s incredibly powerful.”.

The Goodman Trophy was an early commission for the workshop, when in 1970, Mr Everard N Goodman approached Grant Macdonald to create a piece to award to winners of an annual ‘parent vs boys challenge’ in cricket and football at Carmel College Oxfordshire. October 1970 saw the first presentation of the trophy, with the Football part of the competition ending in a draw, but the boys team prevailing in cricket.

Hand fabricated from Sterling silver sheet, with 24ct gold plating, it stands on a base of Rosewood.

When the school closed in 1997, the trophy was offered back to Michael Goodman, the son of Mr and Mrs Goodman and this spring Michael brought it to the workshop, to be restored to its former glory.

By looking through the company design archives the original 70’s sketch was found and this has been reunited with the trophy much to the amusement of Michael and it now resides in his silver collection in New York, a treasured family heirloom.


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