A rare wine glass or champagne flute of coal-mining interest c.1780

A rare wine glass or champagne flute of coal-mining interest c.1780, the tapering bowl finely cut with an ovolu border beneath tiny foliate sprigs, engraved below with 'Success to the Thwaite Colliery', the reverse with an armorial crest of a rearing bull above a ducal coronet, the monogram JS below, the stem cut with six vertical facets, 16.6cm.

Provenance: from a private collection in Sussex.

Cf. English Glass Circle exhibitions, 'Strange and Rare', 1987, no. 146, and Diamond Jubilee, 1997, no. 127 for an identical example.

This glass is thought to be the only 18th century type known to commemorate the opening of a colliery. Thwaite Colliery, about 4 miles outside Leeds between Hunslet and Rothwell, was owned by John Smyth, and the heraldic bull is his family crest. The mine was opened in 1780 and closed in 1796. The engineer who designed the main shafts was John Smeaton, better known for constructing the lighthouse now on Plymouth Ho. Smyth held various offices during his life being, MP for Pontefract, a Privy Councillor, a Lord of the Admiralty and the principal proprietor of the Aire and Calder Navigation Company which owned the mine. There is a portrait of him by Pompeo Battoni in York Art Gallery.