High Profile Quaichs!

One of our previous blogs noted the connection between a famous quaich and a well known public figure of his time – Sir Walter Scott and the Waterloo Tree Quaich.  Scott had commissioned the manufacture of a quaich from the wood of the Waterloo Elm, under which the Duke of Wellington’s command post for the Battle of Waterloo (1815) had been set up.  Other prominent people have been presented with quaichs as marks of respect and friendship.  Perhaps most notably, when he was awarded the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh, in 1997, Nelson Mandela was pictured drinking whisky from a quaich.  This honour was granted to the former South African leader in tribute to his gift of inspiring others.  Mandela was an anti-apartheid revolutionary, and an inspirational political leader and philanthropist, who became the first black President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.  He was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions towards dismantling apartheid.

Fast forward to January 2017, when the then UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, became the first foreign leader to vist the newly inaugurated Donald Trump, in his role as the 45th President of the USA.  It is reported that the First Lady, Melania Trump, was presented with a hamper full of produce from Chequers, the UK Prime Minister’s country residence, including apple juice, damson jam and marmalade. The PoTUS himself was given an engraved quaich. The gift of a quaich was regarded as appropriate, given President Trump’s connections with Scotland.  Although he was born and raised in the Queens Borough of New York, the President is half-Scottish on his mother’s side, and he currently owns two Scottish golf courses, at Menie and Trump Turnberry.

Wind back a little to the fantastic Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow in 2014.  Each winning competitor at the 2014 Games, in addition to their appropriate colour of medal, was presented with a commemorative elm wood quaich (echoes of Scott’s Waterloo Tree Quaich!), designed by a Glasgow based artist.  Incidentally, this was not the quaich’s first involvement in top level athletics – a silver quaich was fashioned to mark the occasion of the first ever Commonwealth Youth Games, held in August 2000 in Edinburgh.  This beautiful object is now handed over at the end of each Games, by the current host nation to its successor as host.