Hammer highlights
A rare contrast to the Jacobite glass which has served Edinburgh auction house Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) so well was a large mid- 18th century goblet with a wheel engraved portrait of the victor of Culloden. It was inscribed His Royal Highness William Duke Of Cumberland.
After the 1746 battle Handel wrote See, The Conquering Hero Comes! for the duke but since then ‘Butcher’ Cumberland’s rapid plunge from grace has been in inverse proportion to the rise of his adversary Prince Charles Stuart and anti-Jacobite pieces are rare.