A SET OF SIX ENAMELLED AND GILT FACET-STEM WINE GLASSES, SEC...

Hammer

£2,200

A SET OF SIX ENAMELLED AND GILT FACET-STEM WINE GLASSES, SECOND HALF 18TH CENTURY

all with a drawn ovoid bowl painted in a palette of white and red with two portrait medallions suspended from leaf swags below a gilt-edged rim, the short stem cut with diamond facets, raised on a conical foot. (6) 12.3cm high

For a full discussion of these glasses, see Simon Cottle, 'The Other Beilbys', Apollo (1986) where the decorator has been considered to be a Scottish enameller, Anthony Taylor, formerly of Newcastle upon Tyne.

It has been suggested that the portrait medallion may represent Cardinal Henry Steuart, the Jacobite Duke of York, the younger brother of Prince Charles Edward Steuart, the Young Pretender. Born in 1725, he took Holy Orders in the Roman Catholic Church and became known as Cardinal of York after the Pope had 'raised' him. When his older brother died without legitimate heirs in 1788, Henry succeeded to the Steuart claim to the English throne and was recognised as King Henry IX by the Jacobites until his death in 1807.