A RARE album of sketches by Sir Walter Scott’s close friend, Sir James Skene of Rubislaw, is expected to fetch up to £12,000 when it is auctioned later this month.
Skene, a lawyer and talented amateur artist from a prominent Aberdeen family, completed the sketches between 1793 and 1834. One of them features Scott’s final resting place, Dryburgh Abbey.
Skene drew scenes, not only in Scotland but around Europe, at Scott’s request, in a role similar to that of a photographer.
Scott drew detail and inspiration from the images, some of which featured places he had never visited, and they would form the basis of many of the settings throughout his poetry and in The Waverley Novels.
Many subsequent artists used Skene’s etchings and sketches as sources for their own Waverley illustrations throughout the 19th century.
They were forgotten for 200 years, but the importance of the album was uncovered during lockdown by the great-great-great-grandson of renowned lighthouse engineer, Robert Stevenson, the grandfather of celebrated author Robert Louis Stevenson.
Former lawyer James Will decided to use the time to find out more about the book that had been lying among family papers.
“I suspect my grandfather, Alan Stevenson, purchased the album at auction in the 1950s given his love of lighthouse illustrations,” he said.
“However, I can only speculate as an acquaintance has been documented between Robert Stevenson and Sir James Skene, suggesting a possible earlier connection.
“I had always known of the album but it wasn’t until we were all confined to our homes that I did some detective work. Helpfully a great deal of the sketches are dated so they can be matched to events described in Skene’s writings and Scott’s Journal.
“Many of the illustrations can be traced to the friends’ excursions to ruins, castles and other sites. It was absolutely extraordinary to find a collection like this whose existence was completely unknown to academics.”
The album will be auctioned online by Lyon & Turnbull on February 24.
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