Lot 218
TAIN - A SCOTTISH PROVINCIAL SNUFF MULL
UNMARKED, ATTRIBUTED TO HUGH ROSS
Scottish Works of Art & Whisky
Auction: 16 August 2023 at 11:00 BST
Description
the polished cow horn, with applied mounts, the hinged lid with the applied plaque with an engraved inscription 'Gift Captn. Alexr. Ross of Calrosie To the Revd. Mr. Pat Grant Minister of Loggy Er 1774'
Dimensions
9cm long
Footnote
Literature:
Pg 29 -The Tain Silver Collection, Tain & District Museum Trust, written and compiled by Estelle Quick, 2012.
Note:
Although unmarked the cursive script to the engraving has been found on other pieces by the silversmith Hugh Ross of Tain. Hugh Ross II (c.1710-1776) and Hugh Ross III (1736-1786) were uncle and nephew and were part of an extended family of hammermen. The two worked together for 25 years so in most cases it is very difficult to ascertain which hand is which. A capstan-shaped snuff mull in the Tain Museum collection also offers a comparative due to the cursive script. The base is inscribed with the Sutherland crest and "Gift of the Earl of Sutherland to Carroll 1747" showing the calibre of customers.
The inscription refers to the completion of the major rebuilding of the Kirk at Logie-Easter, Ross & Cromarty. Patrick Grant had been itinerant Minister in the bounds of the Presbytery of Abertarff when he was admitted to the ministry of Logie-Easter in 1744. Two decades later he stated ‘that the Church of Logie-Easter has for many years been in a most ruinous condition; that the timber of the roof was rotten, and the heather thatch did not hold out a drop of rain; the walls were out of plumb, and there was not a pane of glass in any of the windows’. A Committee was thereupon appointed to assist Mr. Grant in taking immediate action to have the Logie-Easter Church restored. Four years later Captain Alexander Ross of Calrossie was one of those nominated for rebuilding the Kirk at Logie and persuaded the parishioners that a new church on a better site was required. The presentation of the snuff mull represents the completion of the new Kirk in 1774. Revd. Grant was still minister at Logie when he died on 19th July 1776 and was succeeded by Capt. Ross’s kinsman John Ross.