Keep it in the family

Any guesses what this is?

I believe it was made by my great-great-great-grandfather Charles, a silversmith in Glasgow.

The story of him and his family is interesting. His family were for generations the tenants of Fersit, near Roybridge in Lochaber, in the lands of the McDonalds of Keppoch / Clan Ranald

As a family they had retained their Catholic faith. That would have been no easy thing. They would have fought with the Jacobites at Culloden and would have fought at the Battle of Mulroy to defend the clan lands from seizure.

Charles' uncle was 'talent spotted' by the Catholic Church and sent to the Scots College in Douai, France for his education. He went on to become Vicar Apostolic (provisional bishop before Catholic Emancipation) for the Highlands.

From the same family came Saint Mary McKillop, Australia's first, and to date only, recognised Catholic Saint.

By the nineteenth century the family were living in Edinburgh, their lands having given way to sheep.

I have a copy of a letter sent to my father, in reply to an enquiry about the provenance of a couple of wood and silver goblets that my parents possessed. Apparently as a young man Charles had converted to Protestantism under the influence of a friend and, not surprisingly, it didn't go down well with the family. He became a silversmith in Glasgow.

The goblets were made of wood, one darker and one lighter and slightly smaller. The rims and bases had silver around the edges and they had a silver shield in the middle, probably engraved with initials.

According to the letter they were probably a wedding gift to Charles' daughter and her husband.

Sadly with my mother's constant polishing over the decades the silver on the goblets wore through leaving them in a sorry state.

One day, some time after my father had passed away, my mother phoned and asked whether it was worth keeping them, given their dilapidated state. At that time I didn't know about the letter. For all I knew the goblets had been bought at an antiques shop or at a jumble sale.

Despite being a bit of a hoarder usually, I decided to be decisive and so said she might as will dispose of them, which she did.

My mother believes that this object came from the same source, although it wasn't mentioned in the letter. It has initials on the lid, but too worn to be legible.

Since my mother gave it to me a few years ago I have never polished it. I think you can understand why.

I do have one other heirloom from that McDonald family, relating to Charles' uncle, which I will Blip one day. It also not in good shape having come very close to a sad end.

Although the letter doesn't mention this object and the initials are too faint to read, I can at least be pretty sure that it came from Scotland. The rim and base are decorated with thistles (extra).