The Duke of Cornwall: an important engraved Privateer wine glass, circa 1760The round funnel bowl engraved with the three-masted ship in full sail, inscribed around the rim 'Success to the DUKE of CORNWALL Privateer,' above 'DAVID JENKINS COMMANDER,', on a single-series opaque twist stem containing a multi-ply corkscrew, over a conical foot, 15.4cm highFootnotes:ProvenanceCaptain David JenkinsThence by family descent to his great-great-great grandsonChristie's, 23 May 1989, lot 166With Asprey, 1989Durrington CollectionLiteraturePeter Dodsworth, The Durrington Collection (2006), no.56ExhibitedBroadfield House Glass Museum, 'Majesty & Rebellion', 1999, catalogue no.45This glass belongs to a group of wine glasses presumed to have been made for Bristol Privateers, which were in effect officially sanctioned pirate ships. The Duke of Cornwall was an active Bristol-based ship of 350 tons with 30 guns, 12 swivels and a crew of 220 men, owned by John Noble and Joseph Love. She was declared on 21 March 1757 and commanded by Captain David Jenkins until 1760, see J W Damer Powell, Bristol Privateers and Ships of War (1930), pp.201-2. In May 1757 the Duke of Cornwall took a French Privateer of 10 guns with a collier that the latter had taken as a prize, sending them both to Mounts Bay. In July she took the Duc d'Aquitaine from St. Domingo, with a cargo worth a staggering £17,000, and brought her into Kingroad. In 1758, together with the St. Andrew, she took a vessel laden with wine and brandy and recaptured the George galley from Poole for Newfoundland. They also retook the Duke of Marlborough from Virginia for London, and in May sent two large Dutch ships with 900 hogsheads of sugar into Falmouth, two French prizes into St. Johns, Newfoundland, and a Spanish vessel into Kingroad. Two previously unrecorded Privateer wine glasses for the St. Andrew were sold by Bonhams on 18 May 2016, lot 110 and 3 November 2016, lot 113, both with unusual mixed twist stems.Felix Farley's Bristol Journal of 4 November 1758 reports that...'The Duke of Cornwall, Privateer, Jenkins, has taken and sent into Kingroad a ship from Canada; and has retaken the Winchelsea, Man of War of 24 guns, which was taken by a French Man of War of 74 guns; Captain Jenkins left his prize with Admiral Saunders in the Bay.'This was the second instance of a Bristol privateer retaking a King's ship. Other prizes of the Duke of Cornwall were the Lyme brig, the Esperance sloop, the Goodman brig, the Mediterranean snow, the Planter and, in 1759, the French snow St. Thomas. David Jenkins was subsequently captain of the Boscawen of Dartmouth, notably defeating three French frigates on 22 November 1761. He was appointed mayor of Truro in 1776, a position later held by his son Sylvanus. A portrait of Jenkins was sold by Bonhams on 21 April 2010, lot 117.This remarkable glass is one of an original set, of which at least five are recorded including the present lot. They are unusual in that they have round funnel bowls, when glasses of this type typically have bucket bowls. An example from the Dr W J Stephens Collection was sold by Sotheby's on 9 December 1947, lot 121 and again as part of the Sir Hugh Dawson Collection on 21 October 1960, lot 39. Another was first sold by Sotheby's on 23 November 1970, again as part of the Anthony Waugh Collection on 28 April 1980, lot 119 and a third time on 15 September 1992, lot 62; this is illustrated by L M Bickerton, Eighteenth Century English Drinking Glasses (1986), p.295, no.945 and had originally belonged to Miss Lettice Jenkins, the great-great granddaughter of Captain David Jenkins (1717-1802). A third example, with a replacement foot, is in the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro and was exhibited at the Association Internationale pour l'Histoire du Verre exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, see the catalogue (1979), p.18, no.34. A fourth is in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (inv. no.GGG0185).This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ** VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
