DOI issue:
No. 58 (December, 1901)
DOI article:Bate, Percy H.: Historic English drinking glasses
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22772#0142
Historic English Drinking Glasses
678
HISTORIC GLASSES
the specimens gradually unfolding itself as the
collection increased. Since then, of course, the
magnificent monograph of Mr. Albert Hartshorne
has appeared, and all that is yet known of Old
English glasses is therein recorded.
Gradually I found that besides the archaeological
and artistic interest attaching to our old drinking
glasses as a whole, an occasional specimen cropped
up that possessed a distinct and individual interest
of its own, some historic or personal association
that took it out of the region of the general into
that of the special; and it is a selection of these
historic glasses that forms the basis of this article.
An interest at once romantic and pathetic
belongs to a lost cause, to any cause for which
gallant gentlemen have given land and life in vain ;
and there is a certain gentle melancholy, as of
“ old, unhappy, far-off times, and battles long ago,”
which attaches itself to that most touching of lost
causes, the Jacobite. The fragile glasses in which
“the King over the water” was toasted have out-
lasted by a century the cause itself; they remain
as frail monuments of the devotion of the followers,
and the mingled charm and incapacity of the
leaders. These were the glasses that belonged to
the various Jacobite clubs and societies that existed
up and down the country ; and though some remain
which are of the date of the “45,” the majority are
later, and simply bear witness to the length of
time the Jacobite sentiment lasted. Of the more
elaborate ones, with portraits of the Pretenders
or lengthy inscriptions engraved on the bowls, I
cannot speak here, for it has not been my good
fortune to find any examples in the market, except-
ing always forgeries. Those illustrated bear various
national badges—rose, thistle, or oak-leaf
(Nos. 2, 4, and 8)—associated with the
Jacobite emblem of the radiant sun and
the mottoes “Fiat” (Nos. 1 and 5) or
“ Redeat” (No. 3). Jacobite glasses are,
of course, rare, but not by any means so
very rare as to render the search for
them hopeless ; indeed, from the number
of these relics that remain to-day (a com-
paratively large number, considering the
fragility of the material) we may judge
that Jacobite sympathies were very
widespread indeed during the latter half
of the eighteenth century. Whether
these sympathies were merely senti-
mental, or whether they were based on a
real political conviction, we can scarcely
decide; but if the feeling was a living
and active one, it is easy to see that
the House of Hanover had at that time but little
real hold on the nation, and that had either of the
Pretenders been strong men, leading a united
party, their hopes might have had an ample
fruition. It almost seems that there was a
singular readiness on the part of the men who
should have been the soul of the movement to
utter, on slight provocation, the lament—
9
THE KING’S CHAMPION GLASS
102'
678
HISTORIC GLASSES
the specimens gradually unfolding itself as the
collection increased. Since then, of course, the
magnificent monograph of Mr. Albert Hartshorne
has appeared, and all that is yet known of Old
English glasses is therein recorded.
Gradually I found that besides the archaeological
and artistic interest attaching to our old drinking
glasses as a whole, an occasional specimen cropped
up that possessed a distinct and individual interest
of its own, some historic or personal association
that took it out of the region of the general into
that of the special; and it is a selection of these
historic glasses that forms the basis of this article.
An interest at once romantic and pathetic
belongs to a lost cause, to any cause for which
gallant gentlemen have given land and life in vain ;
and there is a certain gentle melancholy, as of
“ old, unhappy, far-off times, and battles long ago,”
which attaches itself to that most touching of lost
causes, the Jacobite. The fragile glasses in which
“the King over the water” was toasted have out-
lasted by a century the cause itself; they remain
as frail monuments of the devotion of the followers,
and the mingled charm and incapacity of the
leaders. These were the glasses that belonged to
the various Jacobite clubs and societies that existed
up and down the country ; and though some remain
which are of the date of the “45,” the majority are
later, and simply bear witness to the length of
time the Jacobite sentiment lasted. Of the more
elaborate ones, with portraits of the Pretenders
or lengthy inscriptions engraved on the bowls, I
cannot speak here, for it has not been my good
fortune to find any examples in the market, except-
ing always forgeries. Those illustrated bear various
national badges—rose, thistle, or oak-leaf
(Nos. 2, 4, and 8)—associated with the
Jacobite emblem of the radiant sun and
the mottoes “Fiat” (Nos. 1 and 5) or
“ Redeat” (No. 3). Jacobite glasses are,
of course, rare, but not by any means so
very rare as to render the search for
them hopeless ; indeed, from the number
of these relics that remain to-day (a com-
paratively large number, considering the
fragility of the material) we may judge
that Jacobite sympathies were very
widespread indeed during the latter half
of the eighteenth century. Whether
these sympathies were merely senti-
mental, or whether they were based on a
real political conviction, we can scarcely
decide; but if the feeling was a living
and active one, it is easy to see that
the House of Hanover had at that time but little
real hold on the nation, and that had either of the
Pretenders been strong men, leading a united
party, their hopes might have had an ample
fruition. It almost seems that there was a
singular readiness on the part of the men who
should have been the soul of the movement to
utter, on slight provocation, the lament—
9
THE KING’S CHAMPION GLASS
102'