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Stuart, John Sobieski Stolberg [& Charles Edward]
Vestiarium Scoticum
£731
Auction: 19 September 2024 from 10:00 BST
Description
from the Manuscript formerly in the Library of the Scots College at Douay. With an Introduction and Notes. Edinburgh: William Tait, 1842. First edition, folio (36.8 x 26cm), original red morocco richly gilt overall including large block of the royal arms of Scotland to covers, all edges gilt, 109 pp., half-title, hand-coloured lithographic plate, 75 chromolithographic glazed plates of tartan patterns, mounted as issued, captioned tissue-guards, vellum presentation leaf to front lettered in gilt ‘The gift of the Honble Frances Fraser of Lovat on her marriage, from her grandmother Amelia Mary Fraser of Strichen, 1844’, plates offset onto tissue-guards, variable spotting to mounts
Provenance
The Library of a Scottish Gentleman
Footnote
One of 50 copies according to the ODNB. A notorious work of forgery and fantasy by the impostor Stuart brothers, Englishmen whose real surname was Allen, but who presented themselves (in good faith or otherwise) as illegitimate sons of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, and set about producing works revealing the wealth, and strictly Catholic and Celtic character, of Scottish culture in the middle ages. Their claims that the Vestiarium Scoticum was based on a 15th-century manuscript in their possession were denounced by Walter Scott before his death as fraudulent, but the published work nevertheless had an enduring influence.