Bonhams
Lot 361
AN ENGRAVED CYCLE CLUB FACET STEM WINE GLASS FOR PHILIP EGERTONCirca 1770The drawn ogee bowl inscribed P.Egerton in copper-wheel and diamond-point, the base cut with petal flutes over hexagonal facets and a conical foot, 14.5cm highFootnotes:ProvenanceRobert H. Vaughan (1723-91), Nannau, and thence by descentTamlyns Auctioneers, Bridgewater, 9 December 2008, lot 21Bonhams sale, 16 December 2009, lot 110, where acquired by Peter LoleThe Peter Lole CollectionPossibly for Philip Egerton (1694-1776).THE CYCLE CLUB GLASSESNotesThe present lot comes from a group of thirteen important wine glasses used by members of the Cycle Club which have descended from the Vaughan family of Nannau in North Wales (see P.Lole, 'Limpid Reflections', Glass Circle News, no.118, March 2009, pp.7-8). With its members' close political support of the Stuart cause, the Cycle Club is strongly associated with Jacobite glass. Each of the wine glasses bears the name of a member of the Cycle, including that of the arch-Jacobite Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, recorded in the twenty-six meetings held by a separate host from 2 July 1770 until 8 July 1772 of which 26 people were present. Twelve of the names on the set of thirteen glasses are featured on a contemporary card rota with the owner of the glasses, Robert H. Vaughan acting as host on 24 June 1771. The thirteenth inscribed glass for Philip Egerton of Oulton (1694-1776), does not feature on the rota, but as by far the oldest member - he would have been 76 at the commencement of this Cycle - he was presumably excused from hosting a meeting.Four of the glasses are now in the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. The set included glasses for Sir Watkin Williams Wynn (1748-89; President of the Cycle); Hon. R. Barry (1719-87); Hon. I.S. Barry (1725-84); T. Bycot (d.1798); P. Davies; R.P. Price (1736-82); B. Read; R.P. Thelwall (1720-75); W. Williams (d.1808); Dr. Wynn (?1745-96?); O. Wynne (1742-82); P. Egerton of Oulton (1694-1776). Hartshorne (1897) records that at Oulton there survived a set of ten Jacobite glasses of circa 1750, which were used at Cycle meetings together with a tabernacle portrait of Prince Charles by Giles Hussey. Unfortunately, Oulton Park was burned down in a disastrous fire in the 1920s, and the glasses may not have been saved. It has been suggested that some Clubs, and the Cycle in particular, had duplicate sets of glasses at different venues, and this discovery of a set of Cycle glasses at the Vaughans of Nannau seems to confirm this belief.Further evidence to support this proposition may perhaps be observed in the two group portraits painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds of The Society of Dilettanti, dating from 1778-79, now hanging in Brooks' Club in London. Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Bart, can be seen on the extreme left-hand side of one of the paintings (illustrated) whom along with fellow members of the Dilettanti, including Sir William Hamilton, are clearly holding facet-stem wine glasses of the type used by the Cycle. Unfortunately, the Dilettanti glasses do not appear to be inscribed.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
