About the lot N° 45
Title : The George Iii Goblet, Period : 1762
Provenance : ProvenanceKenneth Alexander CollectionWith Asprey, 1985Durrington Collection
LiteratureDerek Davis and Keith Middlemas, Coloured Glass (1968), p.57L M Bickerton, Eighteenth Century English Drinking Glasses (1986), p.327, no.1062-3Peter Dodsworth, The Durrington Collection (2006), no.28
ExhibitedAsprey, '100 British Glasses', 1985, catalogue p.5, front and back cover illustrationsCorning Museum of Glass, New York, 1985Pollock House, Glasgow Museums, 1998Broadfield House Glass Museum, 'Majesty & Rebellion', 1999, catalogue no.8
This exceptional goblet is among the most celebrated pieces of glass ever produced in Britain. It belongs to a significant group of stately armorial goblets all decorated by William Beilby (1743-1819) with the Royal arms of King George III. Their beauty and elegance places them amongst the finest examples of enamelled glass ever produced and they are considered the most outstanding products of the Beilby family workshop in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Their exquisite brushwork and the astonishing balance in tone of the full colour range employed was emphasised by James Rush, The Ingenious Beilbys (1973), p.99.
It is unclear how many of these Royal glasses were originally produced, but they are thought to have been commissioned to commemorate the birth of The Prince of Wales (the future King George IV) on 12 August 1762. Including the present lot, just ten goblets all with bucket bowls and a decanter bearing these arms are recorded, no two of which are identical either in form or decoration. They are listed by Simon Cottle, 'Fragile Diplomacy: the Significance of the Beilby Royal Armorial Goblets', Glass Circle News, Vol.37, No.2 (2014), pp.24. Most were produced between the birth of the Prince of Wales in August 1762 and the death of William's father in March 1765. Four of these goblets are signed, including two with William Beilby's full signature, leaving little doubt as to the identity of the decorator of the unsigned examples.
Arguably the most famous of these is the so-called Whitehaven Goblet, sold by Christies on 4 June 1985, lot 143 and now in the Beacon Museum in Whitehaven (inv. no.WHHMG.1994.157), illustrated by James Rush, A Beilby Odyssey (1987), pp.84-5, front cover and pl.F.C.2, by Simon Cottle, 'William Beilby and the Art of Glass', The Glass Circle Journal, No.9 (2001), pp.28-9, by Dwight P Lanmon, The Golden Age of English Glass (2011), p.42, fig.21, by Simon Cottle, 'Family Connections: The Formative Years of Beilby Enameled Glass, 1760-1765', Journal of Glass Studies, Vol.57 (2015), p.193, fig.12, and also by Cottle (2014), p.22. It commemorates a slave ship, The King George, launched in 1763 and is the only piece which does not bear the Prince of Wales' feathers on the reverse. It is instead enamelled with an interpretation of the ship inscribed 'Success to the African trade of WHITE-HAVEN.', above the signature 'Beilby junr. invt. & Pinxt.'.
A celebrated goblet in the Fitzwilliam Museum (inv. no.C.570-1961) is signed 'W Beilby Junr NCastle invt. & pinxt.', illustrated in the catalogue (1978), p.96, no.237 and by Rush (1973), p.2, figs.1 and 2. Another in Philadelphia Museum of Art (inv. no.1938-23-19), signed 'Beilby NCastle invt. & pinxt.', is illustrated by Rush (1973), pp.96-7, figs.52-3, by Cottle (2014), p.24 and Cottle (2015), p.192, fig.11. A fourth, signed 'W Beilby junr. invt. & pinxt.', is in the Diageo Collection (formerly the Cinzano Collection), illustrated by Rosa Barovier Mentasti, Glass Collection della Diageo a Santa Vittoria d'Alba (2005), no.172 and also by Cottle (2015), p.194, fig.14.
Together with the present lot, the seven unsigned examples include one in the National Gallery of Victoria (inv. no.D38-1983) and a damaged example at Arniston House in Midlothian, Scotland, both illustrated by Cottle (2014), pp.23...Notes : This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: *
Condition report : This goblet is in good overall condition save for a very shallow small chip to the edge of the foot on the rear-left side of the goblet approximately 3mm wide which extends not more than 1mm into the foot itself. There is some incredibly faint surface clouding to the upper half of the bowl of the goblet, both interior and exterior, just visible when the glass is held against a strong light, just to the right of the enamelled feathers there are four incredibly faint fingerprints just visible within this surface clouding (three fingerprints to the interior and a corresponding thumb-print to the exterior). There are some minute abrasions to the lower edge of the base of the bowl at the front of the goblet which can be viewed with the aid of a lens, and a very faint scratch to the top of the foot approximately 1cm long, all of very little consequence. The enamel colours remain bright and clean and there is only very minimal typical wear to the gilding on the coat of arms, and only slight wear to the gilt grounds of the first and fourth garters on the interior. Within the edge of the foot are several very short annealing fractures from manufacture which can be picked up in certain light, approximately 15 or so in total, the longest of which measures approximately 4mm in length. These all result from the making of this piece, so are of absolutely no significance. As is the case with much Beilby enamelled glass, the gilt rim is worn, as can be clearly seen from the catalogue illustration. There is typical light wear underneath the footrim as expected where this goblet has been standing.Bonhams, auctioneer, London, UK
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Sale title : The Durrington Collection: Important British and Dutch Glass
Sale date : 15 Nov 2023
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Sale Reference : Live Sale
