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Nationwide Tour Offers Americans First Look at Renowned Edinburgh Art Collection Associated with Exiled Scottish Royalty Today the significance of ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ is reduced to an emblem on a shortbread tin. But in 18th-century Europe, the life of the Scottish Prince Charles Edward Stuart propelled a movement and rebellion that inspired myths, political upheaval, and some of the most exquisite works of art and craft of the period.
An unrivaled collection of works from this turbulent chapter in history is being seen for the first time outside of the United Kingdom in Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Royal House of Stuart, 1688-1788: Works of Art from the Drambuie Collection. The six-city nationwide exhibition tour debuted at The Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, Florida in February, and then traveled to the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia. Currently the exhibit is on display at the Headley-Whitney Museum in Lexington, Kentucky (through September 28, 2003), and then it travels to the Albany Institute of History and Art in Albany, New York (November 15, 2003 through May 9, 2004. The tour is accompanied by a comprehensive exhibition catalogue of the same name. E vents were developed to test for strength, stamina, accuracy and agility using the elements and materials of their day-to-day life. The caber toss, stone putt, hammer throw, weight lift, sheaf toss, archery, wrestling, foot races up steep hills and Highland Dancing all combined to tax the endurance and strength of the competitors. While many of the events have become more sophisticated and refined over the centuries, they retain the essence and flavor of the ancient days. Rarely has art created for propagandistic ends taken so luxe a form. From portrait paintings and miniatures, to engraved glass, to gold and silver medals, to ceramics, the works gathered in this exhibition were commissioned in secrecy from some of the finest craftsmen of the day to support the claim to the British throne made by the Stuarts, the Scottish royal family descended from the great Scot hero, Robert the Bruce. For a hundred years many Scots lived in daily expectation of the return of the man they believed to be their rightful king. Their vigil began in 1688, when Protestant enemies forced the Catholic King James VII of Scotland and II of England to flee with his family to France, and continued through 1745, when Prince Charles adopted the costume and manners of an idealized Highland chieftain during a famous uprising, and ended only with the death of Prince Charles Edward Stuart in 1788. These partisans became known as Jacobites, from the Latin root of the name James (Jacobus). Several thousand were exiled to America in the 1700s. Among the prominent Jacobean figures in U.S. history is James Oglethorpe, founder of Savannah and a general in the British Army. Organization and Sponsorship The roots of The Drambuie Liqueur Company may be traced directly to the period of history examined by this exhibition. In 1746, Bonnie Prince Charlie bequeathed to the MacKinnon clan of Skye, the owners of Drambuie, the recipe for scotch whisky liqueur still followed today. (For more information, visit www.drambuie.com.)
This exhibition has been organized by Robin Nicholson, curator of Drambuie collection. Born in Edinburgh, Mr. Nicholson was educated at the Edinburgh Academy, Queen's University, Ontario and Cambridge University, before spending a number of years working for the leading dealers in British art, The Fine Art Society. He has written articles on Scottish and Jacobite art and aspects of collecting for both academic and non-academic journals and has curated several touring exhibitions to museums and galleries in Britain and abroad. He is the author of the recently published book, Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Making of a Myth, A Study in Portraiture, Bucknell University Press. "These works demonstrate how the Jacobites, in creating an abiding tartan-clad iconography, invented a myth so large that it came to eclipse the reality of their adored leader, ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ while he was still alive," said Mr. Nicholson. Exhibition Highlights
The centerpiece of this selection is the finest, rarest
and most valuable example of an "Amen" glass, a form of drinking
glass bearing a subversive toast to the "King o’er the Water."
The tour-de-force Spottiswoode "Amen" Glass, c. 1745, an unequaled
example of free-hand engraving, drawn trumpet bowl and spiral air twist
stem, spent most of the 19th-century stored in a special box in a cupboard
under the stairs of the Spottiswoode house. Given its clear espousal of
loyalty to the Catholic pretender to the throne, possession of this glass
would have been reason enough for a death sentence in 18th-century Britain. Full-size and miniature portraits of the Prince and the Stuart royal family by leading French and Scottish artists, including François de Troy, Antonio David and Cosmo Alexander, are featured in the exhibition, as well as extraordinary miniatures commissioned for concealment in jewelry or under the lid of a snuff box. The most unique of the miniature portraits is a matched pair executed in oil on ivory depicting 14-year-old Prince Charles and his brother Prince Henry in armor, painted by the Venetian-born artist David, who served as court portraitist to the Stuarts. One of the most poignant objects in the exhibition 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 still in a private collection. In this respectful request, the Scottish nephew pleads with his uncle, the King of France, for military aid in the Jacobite insurrection against the Protestant Hanover dynasty of Britain. Had King Louis XV acceded to this request and invaded England, it is likely that the course of British history would have been changed.
An exceedingly fine and rare lady’s fan, hand-painted with allegorical representations of the Jacobite cause; a bust of Prince Charles sculpted in 1747 by Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne; a gold medal c. 1731 reading "micat inter omnes" ("he shines among all"); a rare Staffordshire teapot bearing impressed design of roses and oak leaves; and a numbered ticket to a trial at the Palace of Westminster in London in 1746 that sent three Jacobite lords to their death, are among other works in the exhibition. Nationwide Tour Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, New York Winterthur Museum, Wilmington, Delaware Marsh Art Gallery, University of Richmond Museums, Virginia ### All photos are copyright © The Drambuie Liqueur Company Ltd.
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