Bailey’s Beach Club Silver Bowls Linked to the Pells, Sold at Auction

Bailey’s Beach Club Silver Bowls Linked to the Pells, Sold at Auction

There are grand pieces of Newport history and some less so items.

On Thursday, NYE & Company — a “premier auction house with nationally recognized expertise in fine art, furniture, jewelry, silver and more" — auctioned off a silver set screaming of Newport’s upper crust.

According to the auction house, the silver set’s provenance is “Senator Claiborne and Nuala Pell, Rhode Island: Thence By Descent.” Pell was one of the United States Senators representing Rhode Island from 1961 to 1997. 

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The added twist is the engraving on the largest of the silver bowls.

“SRBA, Winner, 1998”

Spouting Rock Beach Association is the official name of one of the most exclusive private beach clubs in America. It is more commonly known as Bailey's Beach Club.

In 2021, GoLocal’s News Editor Kate Nagle interviewed U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse about his family’s membership in the club, questioning its lack of diversity.

Both Whitehouse and his wife, Sandra, as well as their families, have been members of the club for decades. Whitehouse transferred his shares in the club to his wife years ago, and she is now one of the largest shareholders in the historically all-white club. The club's membership is a who's who of Newport, Palm Beach, and New York wealth.

The club claims it is no longer all-white but refuses to provide any proof.

“It's a long tradition in Rhode Island and there are many of them and I think we just need to work our way through the issues, thank you,” said Whitehouse in 2021 in his interview with Nagle as he was ushered away by a staffer.

Bailey’s Beach Club is not an average private club -- it has been described as the most exclusive club in America.

The New York Times wrote about the club more than a decade ago…’’People kill to belong to the beach,'' said Beth Pyle, whose twin sister, she added, has never quite made it into the club. 'It has really driven some people crazy when they don't get in.''

 

Nagle’s interview with Whitehouse went global.

 

Politico, Fox News, the NY Post, and the New York Times' investigative reporter Kenneth Vogel have all picked up on the story. 

 

“Kudos to @GoLocalProv for asking  @SenWhitehouse (an outspoken critic of systematic racism) about his decades-long membership at the all-white Bailey’s Beach Club in Newport, Rhode Island — which has a roster of affluent members from Newport, Palm Beach & New York,” Vogel Tweeted at the time. 

 

Black News Tonight's Marc Lamont Hill had lots to say about GoLocal's report on Whitehouse’s claims about his relationship to the exclusive Bailey’s Beach Club.

 

 

Lamont was very direct about Whitehouse’s comments:

And what’s it mean to be a white liberal who says all the right things on race — they love black people, they just can never seem to find one worth hiring. They ‘got all these white friends in Congress’ - but none of them have ever been to their house. You ain’t got none in your real life. And they talk a good game about racial inclusion but you were part of a club that has a long history of racial exclusion. 

There’s a long tradition’ — the long tradition is white supremacy. You said ‘they’re working their way through it’ — they’re going to do it when their hand is forced. Save me the platitudes. Save me 49 seconds of talking garbage, and not staying nothing, sir! If you’re really about this racial justice life you’re going to have to prove it. Because right now, to quote a great philosopher, you need more people. 

 

Back to the Auction:

The item auctioned was described as:

Four Small Sterling Silver Footed Bowls
Together with a footed bowl in silver plate. Approx. 6 t.o.

Provenance:
Senator Claiborne and Nuala Pell, Rhode Island: Thence By Descent

• Dimensions: 
  1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm.)

The final price for this auction piece was $275.00.

No word on who was the "winner" in 1998.