Acrostic Wine Glass with Opaque Twist Stem c1760

Description

Heading : Georgian wine glass with opaque twist stem c1760
Period :  George II / George III
Origin : England
Colour : Clear
Bowl : Ogee – engraved with campions and sow thistles. See Below
Stem : Four spiral tapes outwith a double helix core
Foot : Conical
Pontil : Snapped
Glass Type : Lead
Size : 14.8cm height, 5.1cm diameter bowl, 6cm diameter foot
Condition : Excellent
Restoration : The foot rim has been polished.
Weight: 114 grams

It is probable that this is an acrostic Jacobite sympathy glass – we believe the flowers that are represented are campions and sow thistles. The theory goes C S T = Charles Stuart. We have seen a number of glasses with both of these plants depicted and all have had a Jacobite significance.

Glasses engraved with flowers and moths are common. The vast majority are just decorative themes. Some however may present acrostic messages and others represent nothing more than a name. These flowers are campions in saltire with sow thistles and are intentionally sinister and dexter, to be read left to right.

Henry Campion (1680 to 1761) was a renowned Jacobite supporter from Goudhurst. Kent and was a Tory MP for Sussex from 1713 to the uprising in 1715.

On the 24th June 1714 Campion opposed an address of thanks to Queen Anne to introduce a £100.000 reward for the capture of the “Pretender”. James Francis Edward Stuart. He spoke again on the 15th August 1714 against another attempt to introduce the reward. This effectively put an end to his political career even though he was widely tipped to become the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the next administration. led by another Jacobite Viscount Bolingbroke.

It was Campion’s role to organise an uprising in the West of England during the 1715 rebellion and to act as an messenger with the Jacobite court in exile.

Following the failure of the uprising he spent many years abroad not retuning to England until 1720. in 1725 he moved to Hurstpierpoint in West Sussex where he resided until his death in 1761. Both Elizabeth and Henry Campion were celebrated Jacobites and like the majority of Jacobites were English Catholics.