A PAIR OF WILLIAM IV BEAKERS
ROBERT GRAY AND SONS, GLASGOW 1837
Scottish Works of Art & Whisky
Auction: 16 August 2023 at 11:00 BST
Description
of plain tapering form with engraved full armorials, slight stepped foot rim
Dimensions
11cm high, 13oz (combined)
Footnote
Note:
Arms: Quarterly 1st and 2nd (dexter) Or and lion rampant gules on a chief argent three crescents (……?) (sinister) Per fess or and azure in the dexter chief a hand couped fesswise holding a dirk in pale all gules whilst in the sinister base a galley with oars mast and flags also gules in the base a cross crosslet (argent?) 2nd and 3rd Sable three bars ermine overall a lion rampant argent
Crest: An arm in armour embowed the hand holding a scimitar (all proper?)
Motto: Qui me tanget poenitebit [Whoever touches me will repent]
The arms as engraved upon this pair of beakers are a strange heraldic amalgam in that that the arms as found upon the sinister side of the 1st and 4th quarters together with the motto would appear to refer to the Gillespie family in association perhaps with the Macpherson family with whom the Gillespies are a sept or family within the Clan Macpherson stemming anciently from the Macphersons of Invereshie in the County of Inverness-shire. Both the dexter side of the 1st and 4th quarters, together with the arms as found in the 2nd and 3rd quarters presently defy identification. Given the strange marshalling of the arms in the 1st and 4th quarters one does wonder if these arms were borne without authority. Upon an examination of printed Gillespie/Macpherson printed pedigrees there is no clue to be found that would at present solve this heraldic mystery.