Jacobite Glass
During the eighteenth century, goblets with the arms and portraits of William II and William III, the Princes of Orange, were a popular product of the glassworks at Liège, Belgium. It is likely that the intimate trading connections, which existed between Scotland and Flanders, brought the notion of glass commemorating famous persons and events to Scotland.
William III and the house of Hanover came to the thrones of England and Scotland in 1688 deposing the Stewart dynasty. The Jacobites were those who continued to support the Stewarts, taking their name from Jacobus the latin for James. As Jacobite sentiment went underground, glass was produced engraved with cryptic references and motifs of discreet loyalty to the Stewart cause. Hanoverians produced anti-jacobite glass from which to drink their sovereign’s health. 1715, 1719 and 1745 witnessed Stewart attempts to retake the throne, all of which failed. After 1745 Jacobitism ended as a credible force, however, the Stewart military failures were romanticised and commemorated on glasses with the motifs of the Stewart dynasty: oak leaves, thistles and roses.
