The tapering lead glass featuring two birds in flight*,
each with a crested head (likely the Jaybird),
one clutching a sunflower spray,
the other a branch appearing to be cut from the shrub,
the compound foliage of the symbolic Scottish rose;
the reverse with an arrangement of seven x's, above four six-pointed stars -
likely with cryptic reference to Culloden,
and the Bonnie Prince Charlie's flight from Scotland in (1)746;
the base moulded as an open sunflower**, incorporating the snapped pontil as its center

Condition : Excellent; the rim out of round;
a very simple yet very intriguing glass

4.5" High

SOLD

#6981

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* "Bird in Flight": the generic portrayal of the Stuart heir as a bird, either fleeing or returning, was
widespread : see songs such as "A Wee Bird Cam' to Our Ha Door". ***
The "bird" in this ballad (below) is thought to be a symbol for Prince Charlie.

The word 'waes' means 'woes'.

A wee bird cam' to our ha door
He warbled sweet and clearly,
An' aye the o'ercome o' his sang
Was "Wae's me for Prince Charlie".

On hills that are by right his ain
He roams a lonely stranger
On ilka hand he's press'd by want,
On ilka side by danger;
Yestreen I met him in a glen,
My heart maist burstit fairly;
For sairly changed indeed was he -
Oh! Wae's me for Prince Charlie.

Various types of bird were referenced on glassware, and by supportive writers and poets
who wished to avoid being denounced as "Jacobite sympathizers".
Quite often the bird is depicted as crested Jaybird.
Reasons cited range from the allusion to the name "James", to Aesop's Fables

*** (Material Culture and Sedition, M. Pittock, "Appendix, Index of Symbols, Cant and Code").