A Williamite tall knop-stemmed goblet, late 17th Century, Anglo-Dutch, engraved with portrait medallions of William and Mary and inscribed within laurelled cartouches 'Vivat William Rex & Vivat...

A Williamite tall knop-stemmed goblet, late 17th Century, Anglo-Dutch, engraved with portrait medallions of William and Mary and inscribed within laurelled cartouches 'Vivat William Rex & Vivat Maria Regina', 23cm high. The following lots of engraved glass are the property of a noted authority on 18th Century glass. It is only recently that the extent of the later engraving of original glassware has been understood. The dealer, Thomas Rohan, in his 'Confessions of a Dealer (London, 1924)' describes the sudden appearance of Volunteer and Williamite glasses in Dublin ''during the recent trouble''. This he attributed to the gentry disgorging their treasures before fleeing the country. In fact the Cork historian, Robert Day, and the master engraver Franz Tieze had joined up to supply the market for a new breed of avid glass collectors, Day had made a study of Volunteer designs (and incidentally, of Jacobite toasting glasses!) and this, combined with Tieze's skill, has allowed the results to be categorised as ''historicist''. A notable example is the Charlemont Jug, sold in all innocence by Hamilton Osborne King to the late John Bailey. When the same firm re-offered the collection in the year 2000, with the jug carefully catalogued by Peter Francis (with an illustration of Tieze's notebook) it merited being bought by the National Museum for what it actually was. Whilst Day/Tieze supplied examples of Williamite glass for collectors, there is a difference in that the serious business, especially in Dublin, of toasting 'The Glorious Memory' continued uninterrupted in the Orange Lodges. Presumably breakages were frequent and the easiest way to replace was to get 18th Century plain glasses engraved with Williamite iconography. Some of the engraving is very fine and Tieze would have had a hand in this as well.

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