SOLD – Georgian Jacobite Sympathy Wine Glass c1760

Description

A magnificent Georgian Jacobite Sympathy engraved Opaque twist wine glass c1760.

It has an Ogee bowl beautifully engraved with two large flowering carnations and three buds.  A jay bird looks back over his shoulder opposite. This is a reference to Aesops fables and the usurpation that we have explained many times.

It has a 14 ply spiral band outside a pair of spiral tapes. Concial foot snapped pontil.

English lead. no chips cracks or restoration. it measures 5 7/8 inches tall with a 2 inch rim and 2 7/8 inch foot.

The combination of two open flowers and three buds and there relative position related to the Stuart family lineage.

Carnations and the Jacobite cause

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

Bonnie Prince Charlie was born on 31^st December 1720.  The following January was unseasonably warm and 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 Highlander 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 111 was in his papal palace at the Piazza dei Santi Apostili and was consuming the funds of supporters. The very early budding of Carnations was a “sign”.

Carnations had been associated with “the cause” for quite some time. One of the earliest references we have found is from the first decade of the century.

In the first picture attached. you will see a portrait of Princess Louise the princess royal or “Princess over the water” (youngest daughter of King James II and VII) which was painted about 1704.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery owns this painting. In this. Louise wears a gold brocade dress 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 was intended in the way 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 the chronicles and literature to later Jacobite parades being lead by “crosses of carnations” where the tomb of both pretenders were strewn with carnations each year as late as 1898. But why carnations?

I have recently come across a new book on the Jacobites which was written by a Professor Murray Pittock who hails from Scotland.

It’s called –

From material culture and Sedition 1688-1760. Treacherous objects. secret places – Murray GH Pittock and Jacobitism (British History in Perspective)

So I decided to contact Professor Pittock at the University of Glasgow. His email is below.

Sent: Thu. 23 Jan 2014 11:39

Subject: Re: Red Carnations & The Jacobite Cause

Dear Alex. 

‘Carnation’ was used for ‘coronation’. As virtually all risk of prosecution arose from language. references deriving from Latin. off rhymes. symbols or puns were used extensively to circumvent the law. The colour white was used-usually via roses- as a sign of the House of Bourbon and of the Dukes of York (white rose) and Albany (white land. code for Scotland in Charles I’s court masques and praise poetry). The Stuart battle standard-certainly in 1745- was red and white. Red symbolized high status. being the first among colours. the first of the spectrum. It was in such a context the colour of the king; used by supporters of the Crown and the legitimate succession in the Exclusion Crisis. Also used together with green. symbolic of fertility and love: ‘The man that should our king hae been. /He wore the royal red and green’ (‘Welcome. Royal Charlie’).

Hope this helps

Best wishes.

Murray

Professor Murray Pittock D. Litt. FEA FRHistS FRSA FRSE

Vice-Principal & Head of the College of Arts

6 University Gardens.

University of Glasgow G12 8QH

Scotland.