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#0143
Historic English
“ Now all is done that man can do,
And all is done in vain.”
Of course, if the Jacobites pledged their
rightful King in the old toast—
‘ ‘ God bless the Pretender, and God bless the King !
But which is the Pretender and which is the King ?
God bless me ! that’s quite another thing ! ”
and drank also to the little gentleman in the velvet
jacket (the mole that made the hill against which
the horse of William III. stumbled, throwing the
King, and causing his death), their political
opponents were not backward; and we find glasses
inscribed “The Immortal Memory,” which were
used by men of Orange proclivities to drink to the
memory of William III. of England as the bulwark
of national liberties. The little glass (No. 6)
bearing the Union Jack surrounded by the Garter
would almost seem to have pertained to some
association pledged to support the union of
England and Scotland, in opposition to the
Jacobites. The duplicate of this glass in the
British Museum is labelled as having been used
at a coronation, but though it is heresy of the
deepest dye to venture to suggest that the
authorities of that national institution may be in
error, I fear that this is the case. The glass is of
about a.d. 1785, and there is no royal symbol to
denote any association with a coronation; nor
does it relate to the union with Ireland at the
beginning of the nineteenth century, for there is
no cross of St. Patrick in the Jack, and no
Drinking Glasses
shamrock, though both rose and thistle are on the
bowl.
A glass which really is associated with a corona-
tion is illustrated as No. 9. This bears the figure
of the King’s Champion, the holder of the Manor
of Scrivelsby in Lincolnshire, as he rides in full
armour into Westminster Hall during the corona-
tion banquet, to throw down the gage of battle on
behalf of the newly-crowned sovereign. His per-
quisite is a golden goblet of wine, and this he is
figured as holding in his hand; and as the date,
July 19th, 1821, is also inscribed on the bowl,
there can be no doubt as to the correctness
of this attribution. Other glasses with royal
associations bear such mottoes as “A Health
to King George,” while there is a very curious
glass in existence which may be associated with
this group as a monument of disloyalty. It
is a tumbler, on one side of which is the word
“Tinker” and on the other the word “King,”
and concealed in the ornaments below the latter
are a number of holes, so that if the person
drinking chose the tinker as his toast the liquor
arrived at its proper destination, but if in loyal
custom he toasted the King, the ale would pour
through the holes, not only failing to reach his lips,
but drenching him into the bargain.
No. 12 is a glass with a very beautifully en-
graved figure of Britannia, a purely patriotic
emblem, and I associate with this a decanter of
about the same date, a.d. 1790, which bears the
“ Now all is done that man can do,
And all is done in vain.”
Of course, if the Jacobites pledged their
rightful King in the old toast—
‘ ‘ God bless the Pretender, and God bless the King !
But which is the Pretender and which is the King ?
God bless me ! that’s quite another thing ! ”
and drank also to the little gentleman in the velvet
jacket (the mole that made the hill against which
the horse of William III. stumbled, throwing the
King, and causing his death), their political
opponents were not backward; and we find glasses
inscribed “The Immortal Memory,” which were
used by men of Orange proclivities to drink to the
memory of William III. of England as the bulwark
of national liberties. The little glass (No. 6)
bearing the Union Jack surrounded by the Garter
would almost seem to have pertained to some
association pledged to support the union of
England and Scotland, in opposition to the
Jacobites. The duplicate of this glass in the
British Museum is labelled as having been used
at a coronation, but though it is heresy of the
deepest dye to venture to suggest that the
authorities of that national institution may be in
error, I fear that this is the case. The glass is of
about a.d. 1785, and there is no royal symbol to
denote any association with a coronation; nor
does it relate to the union with Ireland at the
beginning of the nineteenth century, for there is
no cross of St. Patrick in the Jack, and no
Drinking Glasses
shamrock, though both rose and thistle are on the
bowl.
A glass which really is associated with a corona-
tion is illustrated as No. 9. This bears the figure
of the King’s Champion, the holder of the Manor
of Scrivelsby in Lincolnshire, as he rides in full
armour into Westminster Hall during the corona-
tion banquet, to throw down the gage of battle on
behalf of the newly-crowned sovereign. His per-
quisite is a golden goblet of wine, and this he is
figured as holding in his hand; and as the date,
July 19th, 1821, is also inscribed on the bowl,
there can be no doubt as to the correctness
of this attribution. Other glasses with royal
associations bear such mottoes as “A Health
to King George,” while there is a very curious
glass in existence which may be associated with
this group as a monument of disloyalty. It
is a tumbler, on one side of which is the word
“Tinker” and on the other the word “King,”
and concealed in the ornaments below the latter
are a number of holes, so that if the person
drinking chose the tinker as his toast the liquor
arrived at its proper destination, but if in loyal
custom he toasted the King, the ale would pour
through the holes, not only failing to reach his lips,
but drenching him into the bargain.
No. 12 is a glass with a very beautifully en-
graved figure of Britannia, a purely patriotic
emblem, and I associate with this a decanter of
about the same date, a.d. 1790, which bears the