LOT 0043 RARE CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN JACOBITE PUNCH BOWL
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finely painted to both sides with a polychrome portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie wearing a tartan jacket, blue bonnet and white cockade, flanked with white roses, in flower and bud, on vibrant green leafy stems, the interior with a further white rose spray, the internal rim with a rui sceptre gilt border (Dimensions: 28.8cm diameter, 12.1cm high) (Qty: 1) (28.8cm diameter, 12.1cm high) Qty: (1) Footnote: Note: This punch bowl forms an important part of a small group of Jacobite Chinese export porcelain wares. So far recorded are a small number of punch bowls, with either Prince Charles or Highland figures depicted, beer jugs and a small amount of armorial porcelain with Scottish Royal arms showing Jacobite standards. A closely comparable example to this punch bowl is held in the Drambuie Collection of Jacobite Works of Art and was previously in the staunchly Jacobite family collection of the Earl & Countess of Perth (see The Jacobite’s and their Adversaries, Christie's Glasgow 12th June 1996, Lot 88 and previously on loan to National Museums Scotland, Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite’s, 2018). As with the example under discussion, it is a particularly fine example showing the highest quality of decoration in the floral sprays and borders, with the detail much finer than more often seen. The portrait also shows far more attention to detail than normal, and, while it is copying the recognisable portrait used in many forms of Jacobite art, the use of such a wide palette of colours is unusual. The portrait is a direct copy of one of the most prolifically produced and recognisable engravings of Prince Charles completed by Sir Robert Strange, an engraver from Edinburgh and member of Prince Charles’s Lifeguards regiment, during the ‘45. Sir Robert’s connection to the cause was close and he is known to have had at least two personal meetings with the Prince in Inverness just before Culloden to create the engraved printing plate for the proposed Jacobite Banknotes (now in the collection of the West Highland Museum Fort William). The print was immediately popular and can be seen in varying scales from miniatures to large-scale prints (see Lyon & Turnbull, Scottish Silver & Applied Arts, 14th August 2019 lot 468). This piece is unusual and differs from the Drambuie example in that the sprays of white roses are of undoubted Jacobite significance, rather than the more generic red/ pink sprays seen in the Drambuie work. These white or Stuart roses were a constant symbol of the Jacobite cause and their use in sprays of three with open and closed buds closely mirror the iconic use in Jacobite glasses. It has been much discussed that the large open rose head represents King James and the buds, Prince Charles and Prince Henry. The commissioning of punch bowls in support of the Jacobite cause is interesting and the connection between them and the associated and more prolific glassware is important. Whether used in private homes or in Jacobite clubs or societies, the use of punch to toast support of the cause is well recorded. The symbolic drowning of Hanoverian Kings on coins set into punch ladles or the passing of glasses over the punch bowl to symbolise the ‘King over the water’ would all have been well-understood in 18th-century society. To carry out these acts using such a fine and bold Jacobite punch bowl would have made what was already a significant act even more important to those involved. Indeed the kudos of owning such an exotic, fashionable and fine piece of porcelain suggests that a high-status Jacobite supporter would have owned this bowl. Moreover, they were comfortable demonstrating their support in an overtly public way so soon after the ’45. In 1863 a large inventory of the contents of Taymouth Castle was prepared by Christie Manson & Woods for the Marquess of Breadalbane. The punch bowl is listed in the inventory as No. 966 'A punch bowl with two medallion portraits of the Pretender'. [National Records of Scotland GD112/22/54-58]
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