Handing a bowl off to someone else usually heralds nothing more noteworthy than perhaps the solution to a hungry stomach. But most bowls are not fashioned from solid silver, the handoff is not often watched by the entire community of a small college, and few bowls boast a history quite so storied not to mention a value rumored to be so eyebrow-raising as the Wentworth Bowl.
OnSept. 20, the day Phil Hanlon '77 will be inaugurated as Dartmouth College President, one man will hand a gleaming silver bowl over to another, marking a moment of considerably more gravity than the beginning of a meal. For decades, each College President has handed off the Wentworth Bowl to his successor during the presidential inauguration ceremony to signify the Wheelock Succession's legacy and promise.
"It's a symbol of the presidency," former College President James Wright said. "The whole ceremony of my inauguration or President Kim's is broader than a single symbolic act, but the symbolic act sort of underlines what it is that's happening on that occasion."
The Wentworth Bowl represents the College President's responsibility of ensuring that Dartmouth will remain "a pure fountain of knowledge," Wright said.
The Wentworth Bowl was given to College founder Eleazar Wheelock by New Hampshire Governor John Wentworth in honor of the first Commencement in 1771. Unofficial College historian Jere Daniell '53 described Wentworth as a "young lion," who commissioned the bowl to indicate his expectations for the stability and success that Dartmouth would bring to the state.
Even more, Wentworth a passionate Anglican dreamed that Dartmouth would become an Anglican hub amidst the United States' many Presbyterian and Congregational churches. The bowl embodies that wish as well, Daniell said.
The Wentworth Bowl is known as a monteith, which is a particular type of punch bowl used to chill wine glasses before serving drinks, College archivist Peter Carini said.
"You would fill the bowl with cold water, and you would put the glasses into the water with the cups down and the stems sticking out through the little dips in the crown," Carini said.
When the bowl is not in use to hold glasses, it can also double as a punchbowl, Carini said. While Wheelock likely used the monteith in this fashion, neither Wright nor Carini could remember a time when the Wentworth Bowl was employed for anything other than inaugural ornament.
Since monteiths were owned by nobility, presenting the Wentworth Bowl as a gift to the nascent College may have seemed out of place, Carini said.
After all, Dartmouth's first Commencement was harldy a success. Just one trustee was able to attend and the cook was too drunk to prepare enough food, Carini said.
Seen in this light, that Wentworth gave Dartmouth a symbolic monteith may illustrate the scale of his dreams for the College, Carini said.
"It shows that he was thinking of Dartmouth as some place that would rise to the level of nobility, if you wish," he said.
Because the Wentworth Bowl is not merely decorative, it is reputed to be the second most valuable silver item in the United States, Carini said. But if the bowl's 66 ounces were melted down to pure silver, it would be worth just $1,600. The Wentworth Bowl's value lies in its rareness and special usage, not the precious metal itself, according to Carini.
"If somebody stole it, or if we put it into the Hood Museum, its value would drop dramatically," Carini said.
On the Wentworth Bowl, Wentworth inscribed a note to Wheelock, indicating his "gratitude" and "good wishes." Just three American monteiths made of silver are known to exist. At least two gold copies of the Wentworth Bowl were made, Carini said.
