Jacobite Wine Glass with Four Knop Air Twist Stem c1750

Description

Heading : An Engraved Jacobite Wine Glass – Four-Knopped Air Twist Stem
Period : George II
Origin : England
Colour : Clear, grey hue
Bowl : Bell; engraved with a moth (in the style of those attributed to ‘Engraver F’ and a single carnation bloom.
Stem : Short plain stem section. two flattened ball knops over an inverted baluster knop and a true ball knop cushion
Foot : Conical
Pontil : Snapped
Glass Type : Lead
Size :  18.6cm height.  7.3cm diameter bowl. 77.6cm diameter foot
Condition : Excellent; no chips or cracks – strong pucella marks.
Restoration : None
Weight:  179 grams

Note:  There follows a copy of our previously-published notes on the significance of the carnation – and the moth – to adherents of the Jacobite cause:

All collectors of Jacobite glass will be familiar with engraved Tudor or Stuart roses. Fewer. however. are aware of the significance of carnations. We don’t know precisely when this association between carnations and the Jacobites was first made. but there are some historical pointers.

Bonnie Prince Charlie was born on 31st December 1720.  The following January has been recorded as being unseasonably warm. for instance. The Jacobite Times records…

“The year 1721 began with a burst of spring which terrified nervous people. ‘ Strange and ominous.’ was the comment on the suburban fields full of flowers. and on the peas and beans in full bloom at Peterborough House. Milbank. When the carnations budded in January. there was ‘ general amazement ‘ even among people who cut coarse jokes on the suicides. which attended the bursting of the South Sea bubble. The papers were quite funny. too. at the devastation. which an outbreak of smallpox was making among the young beauties of aristocratic families. The disease had silenced the scandal at tea tables. by carrying off the guests. and poor epigrams were made upon them.  Dying. dead. or ruined. everyone was laughed at.”

1720 was the low point for the Jacobite cause. A small combined Spanish and Highland force had been defeated at the battle of Glenshiel the previous summer and it was fully four years since Prince James had set sail from Montrose following the 1715 uprising. James III was in his papal palace at the Piazza dei Santi Apostili and was rapidly consuming the funds donated by supporters. The very early budding of carnations was a seized upon as a “sign” that better times were upon the horizon.

Carnations had been associated with “the cause” for quite some time. One of the earliest references we have uncovered comes from the first few years of the 18th century – in simple terms it was codified means by which reference could be made to the hoped-for coronation of a Jacobite monarch.

There are portraits painted at around this same time which show Princess Louisa Maria – the Jacobite Princess Royal (as the youngest daughter of King James II and VII). or “the Princess over the water” as she was known.

Louisa is depicted wearing gold brocade dress. boldly emblazoned with a white and a red carnation. In her hair are diamonds and further prominent red carnations. Why so much rouge and prominently painted lips on white skin? Was this simply fashion? You have to remember that this was painted at a time when a message and hidden meaning could be inferred by the way in which a lady held her fan alone and Red and White were the colours of the Stuart battle standard…could this be a mere coincidence?

There are numerous references in contemporary chronicles and literature to later Jacobite parades being lead by “crosses of carnations” and where the tomb of both pretenders were strewn with carnations each year as late as 1898.

The use of moths in Jacobite symbology is less obtuse; in common with the equally common bee or butterfly motifs. they simply refer to a ‘return home after flight’ – the repatriation and restoration of the Jacobite monarchy after enforced exile. They are also said to allude to the ‘restoration of the soul’ – another wandering. homeless entity that – it is hoped – can be returned in glory from whence it came.