The 10 most important Scottish artists you should know about

Ahead of Bonhams Scottish Art auction on 15 May in Edinburgh, Specialist and Head of Sale, May Matthews, introduces ten of the most important Scottish artists from the last 250 years.   Henry Raeburn Perhaps Scotland’s most well-known painter, Henry Raeburn (1756–1823) had a tremendously successful career as a portrait painter in the late 18th…

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Culloden battlefield broadsword to be auctioned by Bonhams

A sword found at the site of Battle of Culloden is to be put up for auction. Fought in 1746 it was the final engagement of the Jacobite Rising in which the forces loyal to the Young Pretender, Bonnie Price Charlie, were defeated by British forces led by the Duke of Cumberland. The 18th century…

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Harry Potter book found in Highland bookshop sells for £55k

A first edition of Harry Potter, which was bought for a tenner in 1997, has sold for an eye-watering £55,104 at auction. The hardback copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first book in JK Rowling’s stories about a boy wizard, was picked up by a woman who found the book during a…

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Rare photos of the Beatles in Scotland sell for nearly £10k

A collection of never-before-seen photos of the Beatles performing in Scotland sold for nearly £10,000 at auction. The 50 black and white pictures were taken during a show in Dundee on 20 October 1964. In one of the pictures drummer Ringo plays the piano with a cigarette in his mouth while Paul has a go…

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Fancy owning a 40 million year old crocodile?

THE fossil of a 40 million-year-old crocodile is coming up for auction next week in Glasgow. The ancient croc is one of nearly 200 fossils going under the hammer at McTear’s “Cabinet of Curiosities” auction on 10 August. The collection as assembled by a retired geologist based in the Highlands. It includes a fossilised crocodilian…

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A timely gift for a shoe tycoon goes to auction

A gold watch may be the ‘go to’ retirement gift for long serving employees, but when staff at Victorian shoemaker, Clarks of Kilmarnock, decided to honour their founder in 1880, they decided to take things a step further. As a mark of their respect for George Clark, the employees presented him with an impressive ‘skeleton’…

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