A JACOBITE SEAL RING
LATE 18TH CENTURY
£1,500
Scottish Silver & Applied Arts
Auction: 14 August 2019 at 11:00 BST
Description
the banded agate intaglio of shield-shaped outline, engraved with displayed rose head and single bud emanating from stem with motto Turno Tempus Erit above, set in a tradition collet setting with deep scroll to the shoulders
Dimensions
Intaglio 11mm widest part
Footnote
Literature: Seddon, G. (2001). The Jacobites and their drinking glasses. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club, p.107.
Note: The motto seen in connection to the typical Jacobite rose and bud, Turno Tempus Erit, translates as 'For Turnus there will come a time'. This appears to have been taken from the Xth book of Virgils Aeneid. Turnus had killed Aeneas' friend, Pallas. Later when Aeneas overcame Turnus, the King of the Rutuli, in battle, he was about to spare his life, however he noticed that Turnus was wearing Pallas' gold sword belt. He was so incensed that he killed him in retribution.
This motto and story shows the classical ideas which the 18th century Jacobites placed themselves under. Seeing the cause as such an important and God given right, in this case Turnus represents the Hanoverian Duke of Cumberland, their foe in many battles, and the Stuarts as Aeneas.
Although a motto rarely seen, it is also recorded on a Jacobite wine glass within the Drambuie Collection