The inscription reads,
William Bateman Leeds
a token of esteem
from his friends
The Officers of
THE AMERICAN
TIN PLATE
COMPANY
After an initial failed attempt to enter the tin-plate industry, William Bateman Leeds (1861 - 1908), along with his business partners Daniel Grey Reid, William H. Moore, and James H. Moore, founded the American Tin Plate Co. in 1898. The company expanded, eventually consisting of over 200 companies and controlling 90% of the tin-plate industry, before it was sold to J.P. Morgan's U.S. Steel for $40 million. Through the rest of his life, Leeds was involved in numerous other businesses, including the National Steel Corporation, the National Biscuit company, Diamond Match Company, and various railroads.
Though he was born in Indiana and lived for most of his early career in Chicago, following his marriage on 2 August, 1900 to his second wife, Nonie May Stewart (1878 - 1923), the couple lived grandly in New York City, with summers in Newport, Rhode Island. There, they rented, then purchased in 1906, Rough Point from Frederick W. Vanderbilt, which would later the Doris Duke residence. Leeds tragically died in 1908 in Paris after a stroke. His widow Nonie eventually moved to London and married Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark in 1920, gaining the title Princess Anastasia of Greece and Denmark, and their son William Bateman Leeds Jr. (1902 - 1971), was briefly married to Princess Xenia Georgievna of Russia from 1921 to 1930.