ENGLISH HISTORY

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1934, Page 3

ENGLISH HISTORY

ILLUSTRATED IN GLASS. VALUABLE GOBLET SOLD. Lord Hawke, the Yorkshire cricketer, accompanied by Lady de Robeck, the widow of the admiral, was a keenly interested spectator at Christie’s, when the unique glass goblet designed to' commemorate the victory of his ancestor, Admiral Lord Hawke, at Quiberon Bay, 1759, was offered for public competition, writes A. C. R. Carter in the Daily Telegraph. . It appeared in the sale of the second portion of the Grant Francis collection. During the ascending bidding Lord Hawke remarked: “It’s a lot of money to give for a bit of glass,” and at the final call of £lO5 by Mr. Cecil Davis, he added: “Still, I am sure it’s worth it; and my only regret is that, as a poor cricketer, I cannot afford to buy it for myself.” Engraved with the motto: “Success to the British Fleet,” the goblet is claimed to be unique because it is also engraved with the Royal Arms of George 11. In the Red Cross sale, 1915, another Fleet goblet with the Rose, Thistle and Shamrock, and “Success to the Navy,” was snapped up by I a Dutch neutral, and it was feared that the prize found its way to the messroom of some German battleship. In totalling £l4Bl, this second portion was well sold. The first portion brought about £1750 last summer, and good prices were maintained. A friend of Sir Henry Floyd won (at £54) that remarkable Admiral Byng glass (showing the unlucky admiral dangling from a gibbet), inscribed “Fiat Justitia,” and voicing the popular clamour for Byng’s execution. HOW FARMERS PROTESTED. Indeed, much English history is illustrated in glass. Thus the old “cider” wine glasses were used for Orange toasts, and, in 1760, some were inscribed, “No Excise,” as an outcry by the farmers against a cider tax. Two cider glasses brought £35, and a pair of “Liberty” glasses—made as a counterblast to the Stuart goblets—realised £3B 10s. Mr. Cecil Davis succeeded in buying most of the collection; giving £5l for the two “frigate” glasses commemorating the exploits of Captain Dibdin’s Eagle, 1757, and Captain Lewis’ Enterprise in 1758. But private collectors had their say. The Marquis of Queensberry. for example, gave £l3 10s for a George I. champagne glass with a Silesian stem; Lady (James) Trotter won a few lots: and Mr. D. Smyth bought for £52 a superb tazza-shaped glass, 1680-1700, one of the earliest champagne glasses which have survived the perils of “washingup.”