£6,000
Scottish Works of Art & Whisky | 606
Auction: 12 August 2020 at 11:00 BST
painted in coloured enamels and with gilt embellishments, bears the mottos IN DEFENS AND NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT/ BY APPOINTMENT
Literature: canmore.org.uk/site/115649/edinburgh-47-48-49-50-51-52-princes-street-jenners
Note: Jenners was, until recently, the oldest independent department store in Scotland. It was founded as a drapery business in 1838 by Charles Jenner and Charles Kennington and known as Kennington & Jenner. Kennington retired in 1861 and the store became Charles Jenner and Co. in 1874. Jenner retired in 1881 and left the store to his junior partner James Kennedy. Kennedy and his descendants, the Douglas-Miller family, ran the business from 1881. Fire destroyed the original buildings in 1892 and in 1893 the Scottish architect William Hamilton Beattie was appointed to design the new store which subsequently opened in 1895. The new building was designed with an elaborate carved frontage supported by caryatid figures which were, at Charles Jenner's insistence, intended 'to show symbolically that women are the support of the house'. The new store included many technical innovations such as electric lighting and hydraulic lifts. Jenners has held a Royal Warrant since 1911 and this remarkable carved and painted crest was situated in the gallery before 2005 when the store was sold to House of Fraser, the name having been retained.