Historic 1748 cup and cap awarded to British Captain Hamar for protecting Beaufort, Port Royal from Spanish
Staff reports
After bringing the Hamar Cup to Beaufort, likely for the first time, the Historic Beaufort Foundation (HBF) is now making sure the people of Beaufort can get a first-hand glimpse of the historic artifact.
The 278-year-old “Hamar Cup,” presented to British Captain Joseph Hamar for protecting the early commerce centers of Beaufort and Port Royal Island before the Revolutionary War, is now being displayed in the John Mark Verdier House in downtown Beaufort.
The antique cup, now owned by Historic Beaufort Foundation through the generosity of members and special donors two years ago, is expected to become a major draw at the house museum.
How it got here
In January 2023, Historic Beaufort Foundation successfully bid on the historic silver cup and cap from 1748 presented by “the Gentlemen of Port Royal” to Captain Joseph Hamar, commander of His Majesty’s ship Adventure, for protective services around Beaufort and Port Royal.
“We are absolutely thrilled to have the Hamar Cup to share with the Lowcountry community and visitors from not only across the country but from around the world,” HBF Executive Director Cynthia Cole Jenkins said in a news release.
Sotheby’s experts said the 13.5-inch silver cup and cap, sold by a family on New York City’s upper east side through Sotheby’s auction house and created by Thomas Heming of London, “is among the earliest and most sophisticated examples of rococo silver which can be linked to the American Colonies.”
According to Jenkins in 2023, there was little knowledge of the Cup among historians.
“It’s been in private hands all these years,” Jenkins said at the time, indicating someone tipped her off about its existence.
HBF bid on the silver cup and cap, item No. 828 at the Jan. 23, 2023 auction – “George II Silver Presentation Cup and Cover of South Carolina Interest. Thomas Heming, London, dated 1748” — in partnership with a number of donors who contributed to a special fund for the purchase.
Though its estimated sale price, according to Sotheby’s, was $15,000 to $25,000, the cup and cap sold for $56,700.
A good problem to have
While the Foundation obtained the silver cup more than a year ago, it took months to decide how to display it and how to upgrade security for the cup and the Verdier House to protect the piece, Jenkins said.
“It is so fitting that this historic silver cup has found a home in Beaufort. Our research shows this may be the first time the cup has actually been in the Lowcountry since it was created and presented to Captain Hamar in London all those years ago,” she said.
Why was the Cup made?
In the first half of the 18th century, the stability and economic benefits brought by Royal Navy ships helped establish Beaufort and Port Royal Island as centers for commercial shipping and were recognized by the local “gentlemen” with the silver cup gift to the British captain of the Adventure.
Capt. Hamar and the crew of the Adventure helped close seven years of fighting for control of the region south of Charleston. With the conclusion of the fighting — commonly referred to as King George’s War, the Seven Years War or the War for Jenkins Ear — the Port Royal region finally was safe for commercial investment by the local settlers.
Colonists from South Carolina commissioned the silver cup less than 40 years before the American Revolution. Thomas Heming later became Principal Goldsmith to King George III in 1760.
Capt. Hamar left the Adventure in 1749 and served briefly as captain of the 60-gun Eagle in 1755. He retired from British service in 1758 and died in 1773, just before the American Revolution.
Two streets within Beaufort’s National Historic Landmark district, Hamar and Adventure streets, were named in honor of the 1748 heroics, and Capt. Hamar was gifted two lots on the street of his name.
The inscription on the silver cup reads:
The Gentlemen of Port Royal
So: Carolina
Present this Plate to Captn: Hamar
Comdr: of his Majts Ship Adventure. in
Gratefull Acknowledgment of his Services
Done to this Port in ye Year 1748
Want to see the Cup?
HBF members and officer got a first-hand glimpse of the Hamar Cup at the April 2023 meeting. Now the public can do the same.
Admission to the John Mark Verdier House is $10 per person, but children and military personnel can enter for free.
The Historic Beaufort Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit education foundation created to preserve, protect, and present sites and artifacts of historic, architectural, and cultural interest throughout Beaufort County, South Carolina.
For more information on the entity’s mission and history, visit historicbeaufort.org and follow HBF on social media, including Facebook and Instagram.
Related links
