A RARE JACOBITE ‘KING OVER THE WATER’ WINE GLASS
MID-18TH CENTURY
Auction: Day 1: Wednesday 20 August - Lots 1 - 296
Description
the round funnel bowl engraved with a six-petal open rose flanked by a single closed bud on a leafy stem, raised on a short section of double twist mercury stem, set into a turned wooden foot
Dimensions
12.5cm high
Footnote
A handful of deliberately broken Jacobite glasses are recorded. Some preserved with the addition of a simple wooden foot such as this and one which 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 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 from 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 was a safer way to show support than on the battlefield and became engrained in the culture of the period. It is said that Jacobites in the 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.
An example from the Fingask Castle collection was reputedly last used by Prince Charles Edward Stuart to toast the uprising and was ceremonially broken by David Threipland his host. See ‘Jacobite, Stuart and Scottish Applied Art’ Lyon & Turnbull 13th May 2015 lot 5.
It seems possible this glass has a similar tradition, as to preserve a glass in this way must indicate its importance to the original 18th century owners.