The Scott Memorial. A very rare castle top vinaigrette made in Birmingham in 1845 by William & Edward Turnpenny.

The Vinaigrette is of a large size and is unusually, oval in form.  The sides are decorated with reeding and the base with tartan pattern around a vacant shield shaped cartouche.  The cover displays a very detailed high relief view of the Scott Memorial in Edinburgh surrounded by a raised border of scrolls and thistle heads.  The cover opens to reveal exceptional gilding and a most beautiful grille pierced with pluming feathery scrolls and flower heads.  This piece is in most excellent condition and is very well in the base, cover and with a maker’s mark and duty mark on the underside of the grille.  This is a design of Scott Memorial Vinaigrette which is seldom seen and always bears the mark of William & Edward Turnpenny, who were quite exceptional box makers, however their work is scarce.

The Scott Monument is a Victorian Gothic Monument to the Scottish author Sir Walter Scott, which stands in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh.  The tower is 200 feet 6 inches high and has a series of narrow viewing platforms giving panoramic views of Edinburgh and its surroundings.  Following Scott’s death in 1832 a competition was held to design a monument to him and in 1838 George Meikle Kemp was awarded the contract to construct the monument and John Steell was commissioned to design a monumental statue of Scott to rest in the space between the tower’s four columns.  

The foundation stone was laid on 15^th August, 1840, following permission by an Act of Parliament and construction ran for nearly four years.  The tower was completed in the Autumn of 1844, with Kemp’s son placing the finial in August of that year.  Kemp did not see the monument finished as walking home from the site on the foggy evening of 6^th March, 1844, he fell into the Union canal and drowned !  The Vinaigrette represents an early example of this monument as it was made in 1845, and the monument was finished the year before.

Length: 2 inches, 5 cm.

Width: 1.5 inches,3.75 cm.

Height: 0.4 inches, 1 cm