Lot Essay
These goblets were called Bataafse vrijheidsglazen and were commissioned to commemorate the uprising of the Patriotic movement in the town of Zwijndrecht, near Dordrecht during the turbulent times when the Republic of the Dutch United Provinces was invaded by the French in 1795. The "patriots" were in favour of the ideals of the French Revolution and accordingly collaborated with the French in establishing the Bataafse Republiek (1795-1806). The stadholders of the House of Orange subsequently had to leave the country returning in 1813 when Willem I was established as the first Dutch constitutional monarch.