A RARE 'SAUNEY'S MISTAKE' BOWL

CIRCA 1785

Details

A RARE 'SAUNEY'S MISTAKE' BOWL
Circa 1785
One side with the grimacing Scotsman seated on his privy, a plaque beside him reading O Sawnoy why leavst thou thy Nelly to moan, the back inscribed in black with the poem SAUNEYS MISTAKE, both panels within border of fruiting and flowering vine, floral clusters on each side and in the center, a wheat husk border inside the rim
11½in. (29.2cm.) diam.

Lot Essay

The poem reads: When first to the South sly Sauney came forth/He was shjewn to a place quite unkown in the North/That he is mistaken you soon will explore/Yet he scratches and s__s as no man did before.
Known only in punchbowls, this subject is after a vulgar anti-Jacobite English print (in fact the bowl is inscribed under the poem with the publication details off the print) satirizing the unsuccessful Scottish foray to London after the 1745 Jacobite rebellion. See Hervouet and Bruneau, op. cit., p. 207

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