A STEEL RAILROAD SPIKE CLAD IN GOLD AND SILVER USED IN THE CEREMONY MARKING THE COMPLETION OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD, 10 MAY 1869 - photo 1
A STEEL RAILROAD SPIKE CLAD IN GOLD AND SILVER USED IN THE CEREMONY MARKING THE COMPLETION OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD, 10 MAY 1869 - photo 2
A STEEL RAILROAD SPIKE CLAD IN GOLD AND SILVER USED IN THE CEREMONY MARKING THE COMPLETION OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD, 10 MAY 1869 - photo 3
A STEEL RAILROAD SPIKE CLAD IN GOLD AND SILVER USED IN THE CEREMONY MARKING THE COMPLETION OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD, 10 MAY 1869 - photo 4
A STEEL RAILROAD SPIKE CLAD IN GOLD AND SILVER USED IN THE CEREMONY MARKING THE COMPLETION OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD, 10 MAY 1869 - photo 5
A STEEL RAILROAD SPIKE CLAD IN GOLD AND SILVER USED IN THE CEREMONY MARKING THE COMPLETION OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD, 10 MAY 1869 - photo 6
A STEEL RAILROAD SPIKE CLAD IN GOLD AND SILVER USED IN THE CEREMONY MARKING THE COMPLETION OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD, 10 MAY 1869 - photo 7

A STEEL RAILROAD SPIKE CLAD IN GOLD AND SILVER USED IN THE CEREMONY MARKING THE COMPLETION OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD, 10 MAY 1869

Lot 15
27.01.2023 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
$ 2 220 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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Archive
ID 887749
Lot 15 | A STEEL RAILROAD SPIKE CLAD IN GOLD AND SILVER USED IN THE CEREMONY MARKING THE COMPLETION OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD, 10 MAY 1869
Estimate value
$ 300 000 – 500 000
A STEEL RAILROAD SPIKE CLAD IN GOLD AND SILVER USED IN THE CEREMONY MARKING THE COMPLETION OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD, 10 MAY 1869

Unknown, but possibly G.W. Laird, San Francisco, 1869

Driving the last spike. The Arizona Spike—presented at the ceremony marking the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Commissioned and presented by Arizona Territorial Governor Anson P.K. Safford, this was one of four ceremonial spikes used to mark the "meeting of the rails" at Promontory Point, Utah on 10 May 1869. Inscribed on the shaft: "Ribbed with iron, clad in silver and crowned with gold Arizona presents her offering to the enterprise that has banded a continent, dictated a pathway to commerce. Presented by Governor Safford."

135mm (long); 25 x 20mm (head); 11 x 11mm (shaft)





Provenance

Anson P.K. Safford (1830-1891) – Sidney Dillon (1812-1892) – by descent to Florence Dillon Wyckoff Whitney (1877-1960) — gift to the Museum of the City of New York, 1943.



Exhibited

The Race to Promontory: The Transcontinental Railroad and the American West. Travelling to Joslyn Art Museum, 6 October 2018 to 6 January 2019; Utah Museum of Fine Arts: 1 February to 29 May 2019; Crocker Art Museum 23 June to 29 September 2019.

Promontory Celebration. Union Pacific Railroad Museum, Council Bluffs, Iowa, 10 May 2003 to 30 June 2018.

Gerald Ford Museum, 6 March to 24 November 2000.

Smithsonian Museum of American History, 1978.
Auction house category:All other types of objects
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
21.01.2023 – 26.01.2023
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