Military Collector/Historian Mike Peters and Military Historian Peter S. Giakoumis today announced the discovery of a long lost “Loving Cup’ awarded to the great Philhellene U.S. Colonel Thomas Setzer Hutchison, a volunteer veteran of the first Balkan War 1912-1913.
“After acquiring the ‘Hutchison Cup’, I remembered I had a friend who was a big Balkan War researcher, Pete Giakoumis, so I sent him an email to let him know I had it,” Peters said. “As a military collector, and a historical consultant for over 50 years, I often search auction houses and dealers for those rare pieces, when I spotted the cup I couldn’t believe my luck, I was amazed that the auction house didn’t know the significance of what they were selling, I had to have it no matter what, and since my people are from Epirus, it was obvious I was going to own it.”
The ‘Hutchison Loving Cup’ is two handed, made of silver, and inscribed in both English and
Greek with the dedication to Colonel Hutchison; “From the Greek Citizens of Nashville To
Colonel Thomas S. Hutchison in appreciation of his service as a soldier in the Army of Greece before Janina 1912.” It was presented on March 16, 1913 to Hutchison by the Greek Consul Mr. Panteles Panagiotopoulos of the Port of Nashville Tennessee, along with 50 Greek Americans, friends, and family at the Colonel’s home in Nashville.
“For the last 9 years I’ve wondered, and searched for clues regarding the fate of the ‘Hutchison Cup’, one of my first questions to his decedents in 2014, was where is the silver Cup? No one knew,” Giakoumis said. “ I was beside myself when I found out my friend Mike had the cup, it was a miracle it was found, and on top of that a friend had it and not some random stranger, truly un-believable, even after Mike sent me pictures, I had to rub my eyes and look twice, I really thought the cup had been melted down, and lost to history, I was ecstatic, the odds of finding it were one in a million.” The majority of historical items are usually lost over the years. Not many from the Balkan War era of 1912-1913 have survived. This physical representation of the pioneer Greek-American communities in America is extremely rare, even harder to find are items that are documented both by the press and in memoir, which the ‘Hutchison Cup’ has in both cases. The ‘Hutchison Cup’ has been meticulously photographed, and will be loaned for display to various non-for profit organizations, and museums, in the United States and in Greece. Giakoumis is a military historian and researcher with extensive studies on many different periods of Greek history, his main focus is on the Greek Americans and the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. His insights on Colonel Hutchison are based on his forthcoming book titled “Forgotten Heroes of The Balkan Wars: Greek Americans and Philhellenes of 1912-1913”.
For more information, please contact Peter S. Giakoumis at 917-572-9377,
[email protected], or Mike Peters at 845-270-4821, [email protected].