Page 31 - February 17 & 18 2024

534. GS SEALED HANDLED ENGLISH ONION WINE BOTTLE. 8.1ins tall. A very special offering in the form of an English onion wine bottle form carrying a large, extremely crisply struck, body seal with
the initials G S. Wonderful, super crud, hand applied handle. Comes with an old hand written
envelope: This is the decanter out of which the murderers of Archbishop Sharp received
refreshment from Grizel Stobie. 17th Century belongs to Charles Browns Heirs. Lip section missing plus body crack - whole seems perfectly stable? Still a significant black glass form of exceptional rarity, with strong Scottish connections. NR. £800-1,200+
Guy Burch adds:
James Sharp, or Sharpe, (4 May 1618 - 3 May 1679) was a minister in the
Church of Scotland, or kirk, who served as Archbishop of St Andrews from 1661 to 1679. His support for Episcopalianism, or governance by bishops, brought him into conflict with elements of the kirk who advocated Presbyterianism. Twice the victim of assassination attempts, the second cost him his life.
Sharp was appointed Archbishop of St Andrews and Primate
of Scotland and consecrated at Westminster Abbey in December
1661. Independent sects were banned, and all officeholders were
required to renounce the rebellious National Covenant but about a third of the clergy
refused and were dismissed. Sharp was responsible for dismissing many of them. Some took to preaching in the open fields, or conventicles, which often attracted thousands of worshippers. 19th century Scottish histories portrayed Sharp as a despised turncoat: For well concocted, cold blooded, systematic dissimulation, he stands almost without a match in History.
He escaped one assignation attempt in Edinburgh but was murdered by militant Covenanters whilst en-route from Edinburgh to St. Andrews in 1679. Nine Covenanters were waiting at Magus Muir, hoping to ambush the Sheriff of Cupar, prominent in persecuting Covenanters, but it was Sharp’s coach they encountered. He was stabbed several times, in front of his daughter Isabella, before being shot in the chest. One of the group, James Russell, told sharp it was: because he had betrayed the church as Judas, and had wrung his hands, these 18 or 19 years in the blood of the saints.
Sharp was buried beneath an imposing black and white marble monument in the Holy Trinity Church, St Andrews,
designed by his son, Sir William. The card giving a provenance of ‘Charles Brown’ (untraced) suggests the seal
should be read as ‘G.S.’ (we agree) and suggest the woman’s name ‘Grizel Strobie’ (Grizel means grey haired). The
bottle is a little difficult to date but c.1690-1720 suggest the connection to Sharp is apocryphal. This seal is unlisted in Burton.
535. SHOULDER RIBBON SEALED LIQUEUR BOTTLE. 8.7ins tall. Applied, uneven, ribbon seal F PETERS. Super crude, chunky
536. SHOULDER RIBBON SEALED LIQUEUR BOTTLE. 8.5ins tall. Applied ribbon seal
F PETERS, some roughness to bottom edge. Dived in 2000 from a boat sunk around 1822. Lip nibbles - in manufacture? Some dullness
blob lip, slight top roughness - in manufacture? Dived in 2000 from a boat sunk around 1822. Slight, mainly lower body, dullness. 8.5/10 NR. £60-80+
& crude body creases. 8.5/10 NR. £60-80+