Beschreibung:

A very rare Beilby enamelled armorial light baluster 'Tilly' wine glass, circa 1765-69The round funnel bowl finely decorated in polychrome with the coat of arms of the Tilly family of Haarlem, a yellow dove perched on an olive branch with a white stem and green leaves, within an ouroboros, the yellow serpent picked out in iron-red shown biting its tail, within an elaborate rococo scroll cartouche painted in shades of pale purple, inscribed 'Tilly.' in opaque white beneath, the reverse with the crest of a white dove in flight above a helmet in yellow and red, traces of gilding to the rim, on a stem with triple-annulated knop above a beaded inverted baluster and small teared basal knop, over a conical foot, 17cm highFootnotesProvenance The Tilly family of Haarlem, Netherlands Thence by family descent to Rudy van Dobben, Halfweg, Netherlands With Frides Laméris, 1 June 2012 Stephen Pohlmann Collection Literature Stephen Pohlmann, 'The Tilly Glasses', Glass Circle News, no.139 (November 2015), p.5, fig.2 Kiki Alpherts and Marius van Dam, Tussen Kunst en Kitsch: 101 ontdekkingen (2015), p.133, no.66 Stephen Pohlmann, 'An Eclectic Collector', Glass Matters, no.14 (June 2022), p.23, figs.6a-b Exhibited 30 Jaar Tussen Kunst en Kitsch in 101 Ontdekkingen, Museum Flehite, Amersfoort, Netherlands, 19 April - 22 July 2015, no.66 Once known as 'Newcastle' balusters, glasses of this distinctive form are now known to have been manufactured in Holland as well as England. It is possible that the Beilbys imported undecorated light-baluster glasses from Holland, as most surviving examples of this shape with Beilby decoration have identical stems. The Beilbys will have been aware that the best glass engravers working in Holland, such as Jacob Sang favoured the light-baluster shape for their most prestigious commissions. Fifteen Beilby decorated light baluster wine glasses or goblets, many of similar shape, are recorded including the present lot. Eleven of these bear armorials or crests, while four are painted with vine in opaque white enamel. The latter include one in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no.c.625/1936), one in the Kunstmuseum Den Haag (inv. no.1005203), one in the Fitzwilliam Museum (inv. no.C.513-1961) and one from the Thompson-Schwab Collection sold by Bonhams on 21 June 2022, lot 102. Of the crested and armorial examples, eight have direct Dutch connections. They include the magnificent Prince William V goblet from the A C Hubbard Jr Collection sold by Bonhams on 30 November 2011, lot 142, a smaller wine glass also bearing the arms of Prince William V sold by Bonhams on 1 May 2013, lot 116, two wine glasses with the arms of Prince William V and Princess Wilhelmina accollé, including one from the Julius and Ann Kaplan Collection sold by Bonhams on 15 November 2017, lot 33 and one in Museum Rotterdam (inv. no.17) and a goblet in the World of Glass Museum in St. Helens bearing the arms of the Van Dongen family of Amsterdam. Three further glasses bear the arms and crest of the Tilly family of Haarlem, including the present lot. A 'Tilly' glass in the Durrington Collection is illustrated by Peter Dodsworth in his catalogue (2006), p.35, no.29 and was thought to be the only example in existence at the time of publication. It differs slightly from the present lot in that in place of the helmet on the reverse there is a wheel-engraved medallion containing seven arrows emblematic of the Seven United Provinces, within the inscription 'VREEDE EN EENDRAGHT' (Peace and Unity). Whilst it has been suggested that the engraving on the Durrington glass existed before the enamelling took place, it seems far more plausible that the decoration originally matched that on the present lot, with the helmet being later removed and replaced by the engraved medallion. The third 'Tilly' glass, in a private collection, is unpublished. The 'Tilly' set was almost certainly commissioned by Claas de Koning Tilly (1727-1814), who by 1764 owned a firm in Haarle