The Petty Parish cup, a rare George II Scottish provincial silver communion cup

By John Baillie of Inverness, 1737 Three marks: IB, INS, H

Footnotes

Literature:
Thomas Burns, Old Scottish Communion Plate, Edinburgh, 1892, page 627.

The rarity of this cup lies in the fact that it was made in Inverness, and this can only be said of perhaps six pairs of Scottish communion cups in total. The fact that very few communion cups bear the the Inverness town mark highlights the prevailing tendency to have plate made in Edinburgh where goldsmiths had a greater reputation.

The pair to this cup is in the collections of Inverness Museum. "Given by Cath. Ladie Dowager of Doun to the kirk of Pettie and repaired by the Parish"

John Baillie, the maker of this cup was one of only four or five goldsmiths active in Inverness at the time, whereas several hundred communion cups were commissioned from numerous Edinburgh makers during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Baillie's cup is are imposing. It stands on an elongated foot, with notably broad column and substantial bucket-shaped bowl. Although there are remarkably few examples with which to compare them, the known Inverness communion cups share this robust style and the current cup is very similar to a pair sold by Christies on 29th June 1999 which bore the maker's mark of Simon Mackenzie, Inverness, 1728

Not much of Baillie's production has survived by his skill as a maker is perhaps demonstrated best by the egg-shaped cover milk jug in the collection of Aberdeen Museum 5.61, pages 112-3, Silver Made in Scotland, Dalgleish and Fothringham, National Museums of Scotland, 2008.

The first noted entry for John Baillie goldsmith appears in the minute book of the Inverness Hammermen on the 13th September 1735 when Baillie was admitted freeman to the Incorporation of Hammermen. He was set the task of making for his essay "a sword hilt of silver, a silver teapot of a China fashion and likeways a raised decanter in silver"

It seems that Baillie quickly obtained recognition. In the same year be was admitted freeman of the incorporation he was paid £15-16 scots to make a silver box to hold the Buress ticket on the award of a Burgess-ship to General Oglethorpe. In 1744 Baillie was elected Deacon of the incorporation. Bailie married Janet Anderson in 1737 and together they had nine children. Sadly Baillie died aged 50 on 18th May 1757.