The Bacchus Goblet: an exceptional engraved ceremonial goblet, circa 1730-40The massive round funnel bowl with a teared base, finely decorated with Bacchus seated astride a barrel, a bunch of grapes raised in his right hand, before a large basket of fruit and flanked by two nude putti, one filling a glass from the cask, the other filling a glass from a decanter bottle held above his head, a branch of fruiting vine to the reverse, within formal stiff-leaf borders, set on a solid cushion knop above a six-sided moulded pedestal stem enclosing an elongated tear, over a heavy domed foot, 28.5cm highFootnotes:ProvenanceW H P Leslie CollectionHamilton Clements Collection, Sotheby's, 6 November 1930, lot 31William Randolph Hearst Collection, St. Donat's Castle, Sotheby's, 6 March 1953, lot 25W A Evill CollectionSotheby's, 22 June 1964, lot 111Sotheby's, 16 May 1966, lot 171With Arthur ChurchillChristie's, 17 November 1992, lot 146With Delomosne and Son, 28 June 1989Patrick and Mavis Walker CollectionLiteratureLeslie Collection, private catalogue, p.71Francis Buckley, Old English Glass (1925), pl.20L M Bickerton, Eighteenth Century English Drinking Glasses (1986), nos.981-2ExhibitedCircle of Glass Collectors Commemorative Exhibition 1937-1962, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1962, no.196Worthing Museum, 1968, no.432Strange and Rare, The Glass Circle 50th Anniversary Exhibition 1937-1987, Broadfield House and Pilkington Glass Museums, 1987, p.33, no.115The scene on this remarkable goblet is paralleled by similar depictions of Bacchus astride a barrel found on several glasses and goblets thought to have been engraved by a Continental hand. A related but earlier heavy baluster goblet of similar ceremonial size engraved with a comparable scene of Bacchus bestriding a barrel is in Manchester Art Gallery (inv. no.1920.803), illustrated and discussed by W A Thorpe, 'English Glass at the Manchester City Art Gallery', The Collector, Vol.11 (1930), pp.90-1, fig.2 where the decoration is attributed to a German engraver perhaps working in Berlin. Thorpe also discusses the similarities of the engraving on the present lot to Potsdam engraved glass, particularly the unusual formal borders. A Potsdam goblet engraved with a comparable scene of Bacchus is illustrated by Rainer Rückert, Die Glasammlung des Bayerischen Nationalmuseums München, Vol.2 (1982), p.252, pl.XXVII, no.813.The decoration on several other surviving glasses suggests that this style of engraving, influenced by earlier German work, is likely to have made its way to the Netherlands before reaching England. Two Dutch engraved light baluster goblets with similar scenes of Bacchus from the A C Hubbard Jr Collection were sold by Bonhams on 30 November 2011, lots 267 and 268 and are illustrated by Ward Lloyd, A Wine Lover's Glasses (2000), pp.97-8, pl.144. Whilst clearly by different hands, the way in which polishing has been used to accentuate certain aspects of the engraving is paralleled on the present goblet, suggesting that a Dutch engraver may have been responsible.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
