Lot 537
A SILVER JOHN BROWN MEMORIAL LAPEL PIN
MIDDLETON RETTIE & SONS, ABERDEEN CIRCA 1883
Scottish Silver & Applied Arts
Auction: 15 August 2018 at 11:00 BST
Description
unmarked, the circular pin head with profile portrait of John Brown flanked by initials and dated 1883, the reverse with VR cipher, on a simple part twisted pin
Dimensions
head 1.4cm diameter, 5.2g
Footnote
Note:
Although unmarked these gold and silver stickpins are known to have been supplied to Queen Victoria by Rettie & Sons of Aberdeen. Leaders in the production of Scottish pebble and granite jewellery it is believed that she was a regular customer personally buying gifts for visitors and family at Balmoral. They were commissioned soon after the death of her favourite and closest attendant at Balmoral who had helped her through the difficult time after her husband's death. This close relationship is well recorded and much evident in the production of these pins.
The pins were given to the estate workers and residents as a memento of John Brown and is recorded by Lytton Strachey's 1921 biography of Victoria 'following Brown's death in 1883…. A Brown memorial brooch - of gold, with the late gillie's head on one side and the royal monogram on the other - was designed by Her Majesty for presentation to her Highland servants and tenants, to be worn by them on the anniversary of his death, with a mourning scarf and pins'
For another example in gold see 'The Scottish Sale' Bonham's 19th - 21st August 2009, lot 283