Description |
This volume, entitled on spine 'Blason of Arms MS Alexr Deuchar', is headed on the first folio (bound reverse side first) 'Armorial bearings of Irish, Scotch, English squires'. Text (167 pages) appears to be in the hand of Alexander's father David Deuchar of Morningside, a noted seal engraver and etcher. It consists of several alphabetically arranged series of written descriptions of armorial bearings with some marginal sketches and notes. Index at end, on different paper, is by Alexander Deuchar, younger, eldest son of David and also a seal engraver. On p.151 are described the arms of the Prince of Wales (the future George IV) as Prince and Steward of Scotland. |
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history |
David Deuchar of Morningside and his son Alexander, younger, were the two most prominent members of the Edinburgh family of lapidaries and seal engravers founded by David's father Alexander, who established himself as a lapidary in Edinburgh shortly after 1745. The firm of David and Alexander Deuchar and Company, seal engravers to the Prince of Wales, is noted in 'Edinburgh Directories' at various addresses in the Parliament Close area, headquarters of the goldsmith and jewellery trade in the city, from 1788 to 1815, but it was certainly in existence earlier since the matrix of the Prince's seal engraved by the firm is dated 1784. David Deuchar, a trained goldsmith and lapidary, designed and presented the first seal of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1781). His partner Alexander was probably the brother nominated as a trustee in his trust deed and settlement registered in 1808. After his father's death Alexander Deuchar, younger, begins to appear independently in the 'Directories' as a seal engraver first in the High Street area and later at various addresses in the New Town. From 1832 he is designated 'seal engraver to His Majesty and genealogical agent'. (Some of Deuchar's genealogical manuscripts were presented to the S.R.O. in 1952-3 by Lady Cochran-Patrick of Ladyland - reference GD1/415). Alexander Deuchar, younger, was also a leading and controversial figure in the chivalric order of knights templar of Scotland, becoming first Grand Master of the Royal Grand Conclave of Scotland in 1811, but being deposed in 1830. George S Draffen, Pour La Foi (Dundee, 1949), pp.8-84, passim. After his death in 1844, his considerable heraldic library of printed and manuscript works, many by his father and himself, was put up for auction. The present volume may have been included in the sale but cannot with certainty be identified in Messrs Tait & Nisbet's catalogue of 1846. |