Two Kentucky Sterling Silver Mint Julep Cups

1963-1968, by Mark J. Scearce, Shelbyville, Kentucky, of traditional slightly tapering cylindrical form with beaded and molded rims, each with the original card.
h. 3-3/4", dia. 3-1/8"; 9.35 total t. oz.

Provenance: The Estate of Bonnie Bolding Swearingen, Birmingham, Alabama.

Notes: Marcus Johnson Scearce (1916-1993), founder of Mark J. Scearce Galleries (now Wakefield-Scearce Galleries) in Shelbyville, is perhaps the only remaining Kentucky maker of hand-crafted silver mint julep cups. After some prototypes in the 1940s, limited production began during the administration of Harry Truman, and since then every Scearce cup has been stamped with the initials of the sitting president at the time it was made. President Lyndon Johnson is known to have ordered 650 cups from Scearce for Christmas gifts one year (placing the order in October and giving Scearce the "Johnson treatment" to ensure their delivery by the holidays). Given the close friendship between LBJ and Bonnie Swearingen, it is likely that these were from that order and a gift from the President himself.