A silver tropy for the swimming instructor Wilhelm Troikÿ
Round domed base supporting a baluster form shaft with Neoclassical decor. The tapering cup decorated with two finely chased oval reserves, one inscribed with a dedication to the swimming instructor dated 28th July 1861, engraved above and below with the dates 1817 and 1840. The other decorated with a depiction of water lilies, a frog and various swimming motifs and inscribed with the dates "1813, 1814, 1815". The base engraved with the names of the trophy's donors, the members of the Berlin Pfuel'sche Anstalt swimming club, including the brothers Friedrich and Adolph Vollgold. H 29.5 cm, weight 790 g.
Berlin, marks of Friedrich WIlhelm Ludwig and Adolph Gustav Julius Vollgold (court goldsmiths to the king of Prussia), 1861.
The Pfuel'sche Schwimmanstalt was founded in 1817 by the Prussian Chief of the General Staff, Colonel Ernst von Pfuel (1779 - 1866) as Berlin's first military instruction and swimming facility - and remained Berlin's most impressive river bath for more than 100 years. The pile baths in the Spree, in the immediate vicinity of the Oberbaum Bridge, were also open to civilians from the beginning and enjoyed great popularity, especially among Berlin's sports clubs and school classes, until the 1930s.
The little frog refers to a quote by Pfuel, who considered breaststroke to be the most effective method of moving through water: "The frog is an excellent swimmer, and our teacher has been found, for the constitution of its body is very similar to that of man in those parts which are mainly necessary for swimming."
Pfuel popularised the "fishing" method of teaching, in which the beginner hangs in a belt and first performs the swimming movements on dry land and only then in the pool.