centred with a faceted oval cairngorm bordered with rubies in square mounts set at intervals in a frame incorporating four lobed forms surmounted with birds’ heads, most likely curlews, the surface decorated with repoussé and engraved geometric motifs.
Illustrated
See no.52 (pgs 48 and 49) of ‘From Function to Fantasy, The Brooch: From 1200 BCE to the contemporary.’
The brooch bears an engraving on the reverse indicating it was ‘Presented to Mrs COLLIE by her friends IN THE HIGHLANDS on her leaving for MANITOBA, 1889’. Annie Collie left Inverness for Canada that year, and willed the brooch to ‘all the succeeding Annes’ in the family.
The composition of the brooch derives from the two terminals of the 8th century penannular jewel known as the Rogart brooch, named after the location of its
find on the Sutherland estate during the railway line extension of 1868. Although it formed part of a hoard, this and a more modest example are the only two in the collection of the National Museums of Scotland, and the superiority of the larger example the reason why that one alone is known as the Rogart Brooch. Its origin is Pictish, the Picts being a group of peoples living north of the Firth of Forth during the early Middle Ages, and the depiction of the birds’ heads characteristic of their brooches. The hoop of the original jewel is decorated with interlaced patterns and the terminals are of clover shape, originally set with cabochon amber.
The centre stone of the 19th century jewel consists of a rich cairngorm, a variety of smoky quartz. It is found in various places in Scotland but named after a single mountain, Cairn Gorm, and associated with the wider mountain range. Its earthy colours reected the landscape from which it derived and it became popular for its local associations. In November 1848, the year Queen Victoria first leased the Balmoral estate (she acquired it in 1852), Prince Albert presented her with a circular brooch centred with a cairngorm found on the nearby mountain of Lochnagar.
The jewel forms part of the Royal Collection Trust, its mount decorated with blue and white enamelled foliage and set with garnets as well as Scottish freshwater pearls. The jeweller R.B.A McLeod of Cadboll, Invergordon in Rothshire, bought the two largest brooches in the hoard and confusingly named them ‘The Cadboll Brooches’. He showed the jewels to the
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1870; they were finally purchased in 1888.
Meanwhile they had been illustrated with another from the hoard as engravings in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1868-70).45 The jeweller Robert Naughten registered a replica of the ‘Rogart’ brooch in 1869.46 Another version with a simplified hoop was registered on 5th May 1873, and reference made to another registered version adapted from the original’s disc shaped terminals. This sounds remarkably like that produced by the maker of this example, P.G. Wilson.
Apprenticed to his father in c.1856, Peter George Wilson (1843-1925) launched his own business in the mid 1860’s, achieving considerable success; his works were noted by the Prince and Princess of Wales who summoned him to Balmoral Castle. Favoured with purchases from Queen Victoria and several Royal family members, he was granted the Royal warrant in 1868. In a bid to link past and present, he was amongst several jewellers to adapt their retail spaces in order to introduce historical works and demonstrate workshop practices to his clientele, even taking out an advertisement in the Inverness Directory of 1873 to that effect: “THE GREAT JEWELLERY ESTABLISHMENT where VISITORS ARE freely admitted to inspect the Shop and Manufactory…the front part of which is fitted up in the style of an Exhibition room or Museum. The press has described ‘the whole as forming one of the finest places of business in the Jewellery and Watchmaking trade in the Kingdom’ ”. When fellow Inverness jeweller Robert Naughten retired, Wilson acquired his business in 1887.
P.G. Wilson advertised himself as one of the most prominent purchasers of Sutherland gold, ensuring the local press were kept informed of his total expenditure of the material. It therefore seems more than likely that this example by him should be composed of Sutherland gold. Combined with the central cairngorm, of a design so closely inspired by such a celebrated historical jewel as the Rogart brooch, this would seem the perfect gift for a friend who was departing the Highlands for another continent.