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Works of Art from the Drambuie
Collection on Tour
Bonnie Prince Charlie and the
Royal House of Stuart, 1688 - 1788
The Drambuie Liquor Company -- maker of the famous Scottish liqueur
-- has one of the finest collections in the world, of 18th century works of art associated with the Jacobite Cause. The
collection includes paintings, medals, miniatures, ceramics and, above all, engraved glasses, that reflect the loyalties
of those who supported the exiled Stuart Royal Family and, in particular, its most notable scion, Prince Charles Edward Stuart
-- Bonnie Prince Charlie.
Over a hundred diverse works from the collection are currently
on tour in the United States until the end of 2005. The artworks are a reflection on the history and heritage of
Scotland. Created by some of the leading artists of 18th century Scotland, England, France, and Italy, they give
a fascinating insight into the uses of art -- both as an elegant weapon of propaganda and as a means of expressing loyalty
to an ancestral king in an age of turmoil and revolution.
The exhibition was on display at the Winterthur Museum during the
fall of 2004, and other participating institutions have been the Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida; the Telfair
Museum, Savannah, Georgia; the Headley-Whitney Museum in Lexington, Kentucky, and the Albany Institute of Arts and History
in Albany, New York. It is currently on display at the University of Richmond until May 7, 2005, and
it will then be shown at the Dixton Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, Tennessee from May 22 - August 26, 2005,
and the Fleming Collection, in London, from September 13 - December 17, 2005.
The exhibition is currently
on display at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, University of Richmond Museums, until May 7, 2005.
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The Jacobite
Collection and Exhibition
The 117 works
of art and artifacts on view in the exhibition, including hand-written letters and other rare manuscripts, are drawn solely
from the company’s collection, regarded as the finest of its kind in the world. It
is especially appropriate that the greatest strength of the Drambuie Jacobite Collection is the large variety of engraved
drinking glasses.
Loyalist
Scots gathered and consolidated their support in social clubs at a time when the art of glass making in Britain was unmatched
in the world. Through this historical convergence, the lowly drinking glass became the focal point of intensely competitive
craftsmanship, displaying a gamut of inventive engraved verse and symbols and mottoes for an educated, tightly bound elite
who enjoyed elaborate word games, visual puns and riddles. On view in “Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Royal House of
Stuart” are 58 drinking glasses from the unequalled collection of Jacobite glass.
Stuart supporters,
called Jacobites, created or commissioned objects that affirmed their loyalty. Because supporting the exiled family was a
treasonable offense and could be punished by death, much of the art they produced was either small and easy to conceal, or
else it contained secret symbols and curious codes that still have not been completely deciphered.
Among the drinking glasses on view, the “Amen” glass, circa 1745, is an outstanding
example of free-hand engraving, drawn trumpet bowl, and spiral air twist stem. The finest, rarest, and most valuable of its
kind, this glass bears a subversive toast to the “King o’er the Water,” as a reference to Bonnie Prince
Charlie.
Other extraordinary objects
in the exhibition include a matched pair of miniature portraits executed in oil on ivory that depict 14-year-old Prince Charles
and his brother Prince Henry in armor, painted by the Venetian-born artist Antonio David, who served as court portraitist
to the Stuarts. Also on view is “The Holyrood Letter,” a pivotal document in the history of the Jacobite uprising
of 1745 and one of very few handwritten letters by Prince Charles, in which the Scottish nephew pleads with his uncle, Louis
XV of France, for military aid.
Archived Issues of Focus:
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History of the Jacobite Cause
In Great Britain
in 1688, the Catholic Stuart monarch of Great Britain -- King James VII of Scotland and II of England -- was forced by his
Protestant enemies to flee with his family to France. Thereafter, for three generations, the Stuarts attempted to recapture
the throne, not just of Scotland, but of Great Britain, first for James VII and II, then his son,
James VIII and II, and in turn, his son, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, who, had he reigned, would have been known as Charles
II. All the attempts failed and with the death of Prince Charles Edward Stuart in 1788, with no heirs to follow him,
the Jacobite cause was also deemed to have met its end.
Throughout this hundred year period, it was vital
that the loyalty of the Jacobites be maintained. Works of Art, bearing the likeness, mottoes or symbols of the exiled
dynasty, became a vital weapon in the battle to win hearts and minds over to the Cause.
Many of these artifacts are exquisite products
of the finest court artists in Europe, others are the creations of talented craftsmen working anonymously and illicitly, under
constant threat of discovery. All are united by their beauty as aesthetic objects and the strength of conviction and
hope that inspired their manufacture.
The History of Drambuie
During the last 20 years, the Drambuie Liqueur Company has assembled
the finest collection in existence of Jacobite artworks. This is fitting, for the world-famous Scottish liqueur is itself
a legacy of that turbulent period.
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The Drambuie
liqueur recipe is actually based upon Prince Charlie’s personal liqueur. One of his most loyal supporters
was Captain John MacKinnon of Strathaird, from the Isle of Skye, who had fought with the Jacobite army in 1745.
Anxious to reward such steadfastness, the Prince,
with no possessions remaining, gave Captain MacKinnon the recipe for his personal liqueur, a mixture of heather honey, herbs
and whisky.
The liqueur’s name was coined from the
Gaelic “An Dram Buidheach,” which means “the drink that satisfies” -- and continues to be produced in Edinburgh, to the same recipe that was used over 200 years
ago. The company is still owned by the MacKinnon family and it has been their inspiration to create this historic collection.
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The Humanities Exchange, PO Box 1608, Largo, FL 33779
Tel: 514-935-1228; Fax: 514-935-1299
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