A GLASS believed to have been used by Bonnie Prince Charlie to toast the health of his father – and then broken – is to be sold at auction next week in Edinburgh.

The rare Jacobite drinking glass, owned by Bruce of Cowden and valued at between £8,000 and £12,000, will be sold by Lyon & Turnbull in its sale on August 16.

The glass, engraved with "God Blis King James the Eight", is part of a large collection of Jacobite glassware and it has a singular history as a direct link to Charles Edward Stuart.

It has long been the preserved tradition in the Bruce family that the glass was broken after the Prince had drunk from it, with the normal Jacobite toast given to "The King Over the Water", recognised by Jacobites – and the King of France – as James III and VIII.

According to Lyon & Turnbull: “Charles is recorded in the area during the ‘45 and was likely gathering support and men to continue the uprising. It is considered likely he met with Bruce of Cowden, an important member of the local community, to garner such support and dined with them, using this glass.

“Breaking the glass follows the tradition of breaking glasses after the toast so that no lesser toast could be given from the glass.”

The National:

The Bruce in question would have been William Bruce, the Laird of Newton and Cowden who practised as a physician in Edinburgh.

Also in the sale are an 18th-century portrait miniature of Bonnie Prince Charlie after Antonio David, which is expected to fetch up to £3,500, and a rare Scottish medieval knightly sword dating from the 15th century which has an overall length of almost a metre.

There are other unusual items in the sale such as the Marquess of Bredalbane’s chair dating from the late 17th century and a bronze church bell produced for a Greenock parish and dated 1677 – both of which are expected to fetch between £2,000 an £3,000. But it is the Prince’s Jacobite glass that will cause most interest, not least because there is a tragic footnote attached to its provenance.

As it was such an important glass due to the Prince using it, the glass was taken for repair by the Bruce family. Unusually, the man tasked to undertake the repairs was Patrick Murray, a goldsmith from Stirling.

According to Lyon & Turnbull, “Patrick Murray of Stirling has been a goldsmith little considered and almost totally overlooked. Little is recorded about Murray other than to say he was working in Stirling as early as 1732. No record of his training or apprenticeship is known. During this time he appears to have been the only working goldsmith in the Burgh and it is surprising not more work by him is known considering the wealth of the area.

“Murray, whilst an obvious choice to repair the glass due to his geographical proximity to the family, was the obvious choice on a more important level, as he too was a Jacobite. Indeed, giving this work to a goldsmith and not knowing his leanings could have resulted in the owner’s imprisonment for treason.

“Murray is among a small handful of true Jacobite craftsmen not only working for Jacobite sympathisers but taking to the cause himself. “Prince Charles’s rally in Stirling must have inspired Murray as he signed and served in Lord George Murray’s Brigade. Murray’s career as a solider was short-lived and less successful than that as a goldsmith and he was taken prisoner as a Jacobite in November 1745, possibly under the Surrender Act invoked by Marshal George Wade, which offered clemency to those who surrendered and became loyal to the Government.

“Whether or not they in fact surrendered under this Act is unknown, but Murray would be imprisoned from November 1745 until November 1746, in Airdrie, Perth, Edinburgh Castle and Carlisle, where on 14th November 1746, Patrick Murray was executed for his part in the rebellion.”

Modern-day Jacobite memorabilia collectors will no doubt point out that the ‘45 was an uprising against a usurping house of Hanover, and not a rebellion, but they will certainly vie to own a glass closely connected to the Prince.

John Mackie, specialist at Lyon & Turnbull said: “There is a huge interest in Jacobite items and they always seem to do well at auction. It is an interesting part of history.”