Glass gift from Bonnie Prince Charlie to be auctioned

A wine glass – one of a pair – given by Bonnie Prince Charlie to his secretary Sir John Hay of Restairig is to be sold by Bonhams in London next month.

With an estimate of £7,000-£9,000, the goblet will be sold as part of Bonham’s next glass sale in London on 12 November.

Standing 22.8cm high, the glass dates from the late 1760s and is engraved with a seven-petalled formal rose (a common Jacobite motif) and a single bud on a stem crossed with a thistle.

A paper label records: “One of a pair, stated to have been the gift of Prince Charles to his treasurer and secretary JOHN HAY, who served throughout the 1745 campaign, was major-domo of the Household & went with Charles to Rome in 1766, created a baronet & left Charles’ service in 1768 Dec. 8th.”

Hay replaced John Murray of Broughton as the prince’s secretary in April 1746. Unfortunately he proved an ineffective administrator and was part of a staff of incompetents that led the Jacobite cause to destruction at Culloden Moor the same month.

Following the pretender into exile in France and latterly Italy, and was named Master of the Household of King Charles III in the faintly ridiculous charade of a court Charles insisted on maintaining; often to the embarrassment and then frustration of his hosts, Louis XV of France and Popes Clement XIII and XIV.

Hay, along with several others, quit the prince’s service in 1768 apparently due to their refusal to countenance some outrageous drunken behaviour by Charles who had turned to the bottle after the evident (and final) failure of the Stuart cause.

Hay returned to England in 1771 and was pardoned by King George III for his part in the rising. Charles stayed Rome, living off the charity of others while dreaming of greatness until he died in 1788, a penniless alcoholic.