Engraved flute glass

Such elegant glasses were popular in the seventeenth century in the Netherlands and often appear in contemporary paintings, usually holding red wine. Not surprisingly, relatively few have survived: they are extremely delicate and would break easily. This example is certainly one of the largest still in existence. The decoration is charming and of considerable historical interest. The figure of a boy with a feathered hat, astride a prancing horse and carrying a baton in his left hand, sets off for his ride, below the band of flowering tendrils near the top of the bowl. This is the five year old Prince Willem III of Orange. On the reverse of the bowl a tree-stump is engraved with two leafless branches, one bearing a single fruit, an orange representing the only child of his father.