Table Napkin from Henry Walters’ Yacht "Narada"

White damask table napkin from Henry Walters' yacht, Narada, with dot-and-floral motif and the word Narada in chain-stitch cursive at a 45-degree angle from the lower corner.

In 1896 Henry Walters purchased a 224-ft. steamyacht from the Philadelphia banking heir Anthony Joseph Drexel, Jr., which he named Narada, after a wandering Vedic sage found in early Hindu texts. Henry, like J. P. Morgan, William Rockefeller, and numerous members of the Vanderbilt family, was a prominent member of the New York Yacht Club. With other club members, he sponsored entries into the America's Cup, and was elected vice-commodore. The Narada was scrapped in the 1930s, but the Walters Art Museum owns this napkin, as well as the yacht's chronometer (WAM 58.266): an extremely accurate timepiece used to help calculate location while at sea.

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Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1889-1917 and 1919-(?); purchased [with the yacht Narada] by Sarah and Morris Levinson, Newburgh, New York, before 1939; by bequest to Joani Frankel, Phoenix, 1973; given to Walters Art Museum, 2012.