SIMLA - AN INDIAN WOODEN AND SILVER PRESENTATION SCROLL HOLDER AND SCROLL TO LADY ELIZABETH BRUCE
UNMARKED, LATE 19TH CENTURY
£555
Auction: The Fiona Buchanan Indian Silver Collection | Wednesday 4th March at 10am
Description
The wooden cylinder with applied silver terminals and applied silver plaque, engraved with inscription ‘PRESENTED TO THE LADY ELIZABETH BRUCE ON THE OCCASION OF HER MARRIAGE WITH MR BABINGTON SMITH BY SOME OF THE CHILDREN OF SIMLA SEPTEMBER 1898’, the presentation scroll to the interior writes ’We all wish you every happiness and we hope that you will accept and sometimes wear the accompanying necklace in remembrance of your affectionate little friends'
Dimensions
37.2cm long
Footnote
Elizabeth Mary Bruce (1877-1944) & Victor Alexander Bruce (1863-1923)
Victor Alexander Bruce was British Viceroy of India from 1894-1899. The Governor General (or Viceroy) retreated to the Viceregal Lodge, Shimla each summer to escape the heat and the government of India moved with them.
Henry Babington Smith, born Jordanhill, was the son of lawyer and mathematician Archibald Smith and was born in 1863 and died in 1923. In 1894 he was made private secretary to Lord Elgin on his appointment as Viceroy of India. Henry married Elizabeth in Christ Church, Simla on 22 September 1898. The cost of decoration of the organ pipes in the church was defrayed by the Countess of Elgin to commemorate the marriage of her daughter.