Beilby Goblet

Acquisition of goblet, one of a series of Royal Armorial goblets painted by William Beilby to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Wales, later George IV, in 1762. It appears this particular goblet was commissioned at the time of the launching of the Prince George, a ship that was intended to participate in the Atlantic slave-trading triangle between Africa, the West Indies and England. On one side the goblet bears the Royal Arms of George III and on the reverse 'Success to the African trade of Whitehaven.'