Concept
Dieges & Clust were jewellers established in New York in 1898 by Col. Charles Joseph Dieges (b. Oct. 26, 1865-d. Sept. 14, 1953) and Prosper Clust (b. Sept. 26, 1873-d. Mar. 28, 1933). The firm was founded in 1898 as a partnership between Charles Joseph Dieges and Prosper Clust. The partnership was converted to a company in 1908 with Dieges as president and director, and with Clust as secretary-treasurer and director. The firm was located at 20 John Street, New York, New York, expanding to have offices in Boston, Pittsburgh, and Chicago. The firm was sold to Herff Jones (a division of Carnation) on January 1, 1980. They produced many medals, including the Spanish–American War Medal, the 1904 Olympic Medal, the Eagle Scout medal (from 1916 to 1920), New York State World War I Service Medal, the Medal of Honour, and the Titanic-Carpathia Medals (at the request of "The Unsinkable" Mrs. Molly Brown). They made baseball's first Most Valuable Player Awards and many Baseball Press Pins as well as Lou Gehrig's farewell plaque. They also cast the Heisman Trophy (in New York and later Providence, Rhode Island) from its inception in 1935 through late 1979 when the company was sold to Herff Jones (a division of Carnation) on January 1, 1980. Perhaps the height of Dieges & Clust's production were the 1920s trophies known in sports collecting circles as "The Five Figural Spalding Baseball Trophies". The various trophies depict a baseball player pitching, catching, batting, playing first base, or playing in the outfield. The proportions of the figures and the detail (of the faces, fingers, stitching in the baseball gloves and shoelaces) are remarkable. They fetch up to $5,000 at auction, relatively high for a silver-plated trophy on a wooden base. The company produced the Martin J. Sheridan Medal for Valor for the New York City Police Department (NYPD) that was established in honor of Detective Martin J. Sheridan – the Irish-American Athletic Club's star U.S. Olympic champion who died in 1918 of the influenza pandemic.
