The vasiform cup decorated with garlands suspended from masques, surmounted by a cover crowned by a fruiting finial; the underside of cover engraved with presentation inscription; marked to lid and underside of base.

The presentation inscription to the underside of the cover reads, "Astor Cup for Schooners/Presented by Vice Commodore Vincent Astor New/York Yacht Club/Won by "Vanitie"/Newport, August 18th 1927."

The Astor Cup was an annual yachting regatta held in Newport, Rhode Island, founded in 1882 by John Jacob Astor III. In both 1927 and 1928, The schooner Vanitie won the Astor Cup for Schooners with little difficulty. Designed by William Gardner and built by George Lawley & Sons of Boston, she was intended for the America's Cup but regrettably failed in both 1914 and 1920.

Vanitie was commissioned by Alexander Smith Cochran (American, 1874-1929), a dedicated yachtsman and antiquarian book collector made most famous by his brief marriage to the notorious opera singer Ganna Walska (Polish, 1887-1894). Cochran was a wealthy manufacturing magnate, having received both a $40 million inheritance and Alexander Smith & Sons Carpet Mills, one of the largest carpet manufacturers in the world, just after 1900. He dedicated his vast fortune to both yachting and book collecting, donating important Tudor era manuscripts to the Elizabethan Club (which he founded) at Yale, his alma mater, and endowing the Department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to which he donated his unrivaled collection of Persian illuminated manuscripts.