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I realise this is a very, very long shot, but if I don't ask I certainly won't get.
The editor of the Stornoway Gazette in the Outer Hebrides wrote as follows to a man at Sotheby's in 1991:
I wonder whether one of your experts on Elizabethan Silver can give me any information about a silver cup inscribed “McLeod of Lewes 1588” which, I am told, was, and still may be, in the possession of one of the Inns of Court?
The cup is of some historical interest. The McLeods of Lewis were disaffected towards the Scottish Crown and carried on espionage for Crown Elizabeth. Eventually they were deprived of their possessions by James VI and I, and the last McLeod chief was executed as a traitor.
The existence of a cup inscribed to McLeod and bearing the date of the Armada years suggests it might have been originally a gift from Elizabeth in return for services rendered. If that should prove to be the case, the cup would be of interest as a piece of historical evidence, quite apart from any value it has as a work of art.
Unfortunately the friend who told me had seen a photographs of such a cup, in a book on Old English Silver, could not recall the name of the book and have been unable to trace it.
The ensuing correspondence failed to locate the cup, or the picture referred to.
I wonder whether anyone on here has a specialist interest in old silver and might be able to help. Perhaps someone has seen the photo and remembers what the book was?
Many thanks!
The editor of the Stornoway Gazette in the Outer Hebrides wrote as follows to a man at Sotheby's in 1991:
I wonder whether one of your experts on Elizabethan Silver can give me any information about a silver cup inscribed “McLeod of Lewes 1588” which, I am told, was, and still may be, in the possession of one of the Inns of Court?
The cup is of some historical interest. The McLeods of Lewis were disaffected towards the Scottish Crown and carried on espionage for Crown Elizabeth. Eventually they were deprived of their possessions by James VI and I, and the last McLeod chief was executed as a traitor.
The existence of a cup inscribed to McLeod and bearing the date of the Armada years suggests it might have been originally a gift from Elizabeth in return for services rendered. If that should prove to be the case, the cup would be of interest as a piece of historical evidence, quite apart from any value it has as a work of art.
Unfortunately the friend who told me had seen a photographs of such a cup, in a book on Old English Silver, could not recall the name of the book and have been unable to trace it.
The ensuing correspondence failed to locate the cup, or the picture referred to.
I wonder whether anyone on here has a specialist interest in old silver and might be able to help. Perhaps someone has seen the photo and remembers what the book was?
Many thanks!
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