'Old Pretender' Delftware Punch Bowl

This earthenware punch bowl is decorated with a bluish glaze upon which is painted a portrait medallion of James Francis Edward Stuart, together with the inscription K.J., while inside is a similar portrait inscribed King James and below T Lilly 1732. Ceramic and glass objects decorated with portraits of King James and later his son Bonnie Prince Charlie, often together with Jacobite symbols such as the oak and the rose, were produced during the 18th century in support of the Stuart claim upon the English throne.

James Francis Edward Stuart (1688 - 1766), was the only son of James II by Mary of Modena. At the revolution he was taken to France and proclaimed King of England there on the death of his father (St Germains, 1701). In 1706 he accompanied an unsuccessful expedition to Scotland, but eventually established a court there, at Scone, in 1715 (as James VIII of Scotland). Known as the 'Old Pretender' by the Hanoverians, he made three unsuccessful attempts to regain his throne before finally settling in Rome and marrying Maria Clementina Sobievki. He was buried in St Peter's where George III commissioned the sculptor Canova to build a monument (completed in 1819).

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