Lot 212
A RARE 18TH CENTURY JACOBITE ‘KING OVER THE WATER’ WINE GLASS
Scottish Works of Art & Whisky
Auction: Lots 1 - 412 | 20 August 2024 at 10am
Description
the bucket bowl engraved with open rose head flanked by a single closed bud and foliage, raised on a short section of stem with double twist spiral, set into a turned wooden foot
Dimensions
12.5cm overall height
Footnote
A handful of deliberately broken Jacobite glasses are recorded. Some preserved with the addition of a simple wooden foot such as this and, indeed, one exists with a silver foot added by Jacobite silversmith Patrick Murray of Stirling.
Tradition tells that it was not uncommon to break the stem of such important glasses after receiving a toast to the health and prosperity of the King over the Water. By breaking the stem, it meant no lesser toast could be celebrated with the glass.
The act of giving such toasts within close quarters of friends and Jacobite supporters was considered a safe but public way to show support, giving or receiving such a toast a safer way to support than on the battlefield and became engrained in the culture of the period. In less open company it is said that Jacobites in company of Hanoverian supporters when giving or receiving the toast to ‘The King’ would pass their glass over the punch bowl to signify their Jacobite support for King James or Prince Charles ‘over the water’ in France.
For an example from the famed Fingask Castle collection reputedly last used by Prince Charles Edward Stuart to toast the uprising and was ceremonially broken by Threipland see ‘Jacobite, Stuart and Scottish Applied Art’ Lyon & Turnbull 13th May 2015 lot 5 (sold £7,000).
It seems possible this glass has a similar tradition, but sadly now lost, to preserve a glass such as this it must have had importance to the original 18th century owners.