THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

217

II.

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER AND ITS CARVED BONE COVER.

BY J. H. STEVENSON, M.B.E., K.C., P.S.A.ScoT., MARCHMONT

HERALD.

WITH APPENDIX : (1) NOTE ON THE PROVENANCE OF THE

MAZER, BY MR LIONEL A. CRICHTON; (2) NOTE ON THE SAME, BY

MR WILLIAM BROOK, F.S.A.ScoT.; (3) ZOOLOGICAL NOTE ON THE

WHALE BONE COVER, BY PROFESSOR JAMES RITCHIE, D.Sc.,

F.S.A.SCOT. ; (4) BOTANICAL NOTE ON THE PLANTS IN THE CARVING OF

THE COVER, BY PROFESSOR W. WRIGHT SMITH, M.A., KING'S

BOTANIST FOR SCOTLAND; (5) GEORGE ROBERTSON'S (ERRONEOUS) ACCOUNT

OF THE SHIELDS ON THE BOWL.

The favourite and honoured drinking-cup

;

of the Middle Ages, which

is known as the Mazer, has come in our time to be an 'object of. .much

appreciation and learned attention. Most, if not all of the important

specimens which remain in England, and some of the survivors in Scotland,

have been catalogued and described in one or other of several works;

but the ancient "Bannatyne Mazer,"

which may be called also, for more

than one reason, the Bute Mazer has -not been among them, though,

in some respects, it is by far the most remarkable

(fig. 1).

Although, obviously, this Mazer has been long out of use, it is in

passing good condition,

which is a matter of the first importance, as

almost every feature of it calls for particular notice. I am therefore

specially glad to say that in departments in which I have myself no

authority to speak, I am able to give the Society the benefit of the

skill of others. Thus the technical terms used in the description of

the mountings of the Mazer, which are so important, have been revised

Domestic Architecture in England from Edward I. toRichard II. (Joseph Henry Parker),

1853, p. 61; Old English Plate (W. J. Cripps), 1878, eleventh ed., 1926, p. 294; "On the English

Medieval Drinking Bowls called Mazers," 1886 (Sir W. H. St John Hope), in Archceologia, vol. 1.

part i. p. 129et set). ; Old Scottish Communion Plate, 1892(Rev.Dr ThomasBurns), p. 190; British

Museum Guide to Mediieval Antiquities (O. M. Dalton and A. B. Tonnochy), 1924,pp. 64, 173, 304;

Old English Silver (W. W. Watts); History of English Plate, 1911 (Sir Charles J. Jackson),

2 vols. 4to.

By the kindness of the Marquis of Bute, K.T., F.S.A.Scot., the Mazer and its cover were

exhibited to the meeting; and with them was placed the replica of the Mazer recently presented

by his lordship to the Scottish National Museum of Antiquities.

The only reference to this Mazer which"I have found in any work occurs in George

Robertson's Genealogical Account of the Principal Families in Ayrshire (1823), i. 60, 61. The

notice there, though it is inaccurate and misleading, and cannot well be called a description,

will be found below: Appendix, p. 255.

So far as can now be seen, it has only once been the victim of an accident, and that a

comparatively unimportant one, involvinga corner of the foot, and the corresponding corner of

the boss. The first-named fracture has been repaired with soft solder or lead and that a very

long time ago.

Page 2

218

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 12, 1931.

by Mr William Brook, F.S.A.Scot., who has not only examined the

Mazer but kindly enables me to print his opinion on the provenance

of its boss. Appendix, p. 252. Mr Lionel A. Crichton of Bond Street,

London, has also been good enough to allow me to communicate his

opinion on the same subject. Appendix, p. 251. The special questions,

zoological and botanical, raised by the carved cover of the Mazer,

which, unlike the wooden bowl, is made of bone, have been respectively

considered by Professor James Ritchie and Professor W. Wright

Fig. 1. Bannatyne Mazer, outside.

Smith. The Society will be glad to find their Memoranda printed in

full in the Appendix, pp. 253 and 254.

Mazers, in so far that they were vessels of wood, whether deep or

shallow, and ornamented with silver or gold or not, were all alike;

but, in regard of size, there were two types, the one being of com-

paratively small capacity, intended to satisfy the requirements of

a single person, the other, of much larger dimensions, being meant

to serve the whole table. The Mazer which is in question is one of

the larger sort, made for a common cup to be passed round the company

from hand to hand. It is, also, large of its kind, being 10 inches

across the mouth.

One of the first features of the vessel to attract notice is the com-

Page 3

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

219

parative depth of the bowl when its wood is considered alone, as it

may of itself suggest the early period to which the bowl belongs.

On the outer side of the comparatively broad silver band which

encircles the edge are engraved the names of two successive owners

of the vessel —Robert and Ninian Bannatyne of Kames.

These

Fig. 2. Bannatyne Mazer, inside.

names there are sufficient to account for the title—the "Bannatyne"

Mazer, as well as to settle, within limits, the date of the band.

The lettering of the inscription, of which the names are a part,

belongs to the period of the Renaissance, and several of the characters

in it ought perhaps to be remarked upon.

The set of six silver straps which embraces the bowl is unique now.

Straps at all seem to have been comparatively rarely found on mazers,

perhaps on account of the strength of the material of which the

bowl was made ; and when found on a mazer like this, they raise the

question at once, whether the antiquary is right who says that straps

are an affair of taste rather than utility.

The "foot" of the Mazer, a silver circlet of 6 inches in diameter,

Page 4

220

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 12, 1931.

and | of aninch depth, is connected to the band at the edge by the

straps on the outside, and is soldered to the boss on the inside.

The boss, as we see, is in this case the real bottom of the vessel, and

challenges the opinion of at least one scholar, that the presence of a

print or boss in a mazer was a mere convention (fig. 2).

But apart from its constructional office, the boss in this Mazer con-

stitutes a unique and most remarkable ornament. It is of silvergilt,

circular, and large for a boss in a mazer, for it is 6 inches in diameter.

All except its outermost edging is cast. It rises in the centre into the

figure, in full relief, of a lion couchant. The technique of the casting,

and of the subsequent engraving and chasing of the surface, and the

problem of the nationality of the hands that executed the work, are

matters that seem to demand more attention than they can receive

in a general communication like the present.

The lion.is ..the centre of a circle of six enamelled disks, each of

which contains a shield of Scottish arms. Experts in old silver pro-

nounce- the boss to ,l>elong to the fourteenth century on account of

its technique, already alluded to; the heraldry which it displays corro-

borates the view which is grounded on its art, and further restricts

its period_to

a few years in the first quarter of that century.

The shields on which this conclusion regarding the date of the

Mazer is based are of an exceptional interest of another kind; they

are the most ancient surviving instances of enamels containing Scots

armorial shields in their full emblazonment of metal and colour.

So far as I am aware, they are also the earliest examples of the arms

which they display, in their tinctures in any material.

Lastly, there is the question, how these coats of arms come to be

placed in a circle round a figure of .a lion, on the boss of a drinking-

cup, in Scotland at a time nearly as early as the date of the battle

of Bannockburn? And it demands an attempt at least at an answer;

and, in default of a theory, then, at any rate, a speculation!

The steps of the history of the Mazer can be traced back from the

present day to the date of its first owner, the person by whose instruc-

tions, and, perhaps, under whose eye, it was made; and these ought,

naturally, to be recorded as an adjunct of the proof of its authenticity,

and because what is known of its origin seems to go along with other

apparent indications of its original purpose.

Before it passed to its

now owner, the Marquis of Bute, it had descended to the present

Chief of MacGregor, into whose family it had come by the marriage

of his ancestor of four generations ago with the heiress of MacLeod

For the several opinions of Mr Lionel A. Crichton and Mr William Brook, see below,.

Appendix, pp. 251, 252.

Page 5

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

221

of Bernera.

The MacLeods had had it in virtue of a marriage with

the sister and heiress of the last of the Barmatynes, lairds of Kames.

Whether the Bannatynes handed down any tradition that the Mazer had

descended to them, as it now appears that it presumably did, from the

FitzGilberts, who preceded them in the lands which they held in Bute,

I have not ascertained; but there is a settled tradition that they

received the lands by such an inheritance; and there can be little

doubt that the owners of the lands and the owners of the Mazer were

the same people before the incoming of the Bannatynes, as they were

after. That the originator of the Mazer was a FitzGilbert, although

it is a theory which has not hitherto been advanced so far as I know,

will probably be received with a very considerable amount of favour.

The cover of the Mazer, which is probably contemporary with it, is

also unique among mazer-lids, in its material and ornamentation; and

can be usefully considered only by specialists in zoology and botany.

It is also, like the boss of the vessel, very remarkable in both its

design and its workmanship.

The observations on the Mazer, which I propose to offer for the

consideration of the Society, may perhaps be divided, for convenience,

into sections headed as follows:

1. The wooden bowl which is the foundation of the Mazer.

2. The mazer-band and its inscription.

3. The straps.

4. The foot.

5. The boss and its ornamentation.

6. The cover: its material and ornamentation.

7. The heraldry of the boss, and its testimony to the date of the

vessel.

8. The theory that the Mazer was made for John (?) FitzGilbert,

or Gilbertson, Keeper of Rothesay Castle.

1. The Wooden Bowl.

The wood of the bowl, too dark now to be identified with certainty

by the untutored, is pronounced to be "eyed" or "bird's eye" maple,

the wood of which all vessels of the name were anciently understood

to be made. The accepted explanation, indeed, of the name "mazer"

applied to the bowl or cup is that it is a case of the transfer to the

manufactured article of the name of its material

— mazere wood, a

term which implied that the wood was spotted or variegated, and

which was applied to the kind of maple wood which was so.

We have a parallel case of the transference of the name of the substance used to the

particular article made of it, in the term—"a glass."

Page 6

222

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 12, 1931.

The title "mazer" has thus no reference to the size or relative

proportions of the vessel; it was applied equally to the great mazer-bowl

of York Minster which is over a foot in width across the mouth, and is

suited only to be a common cup—a "grace cup" as it was, for a large

community, and to the individual cups of Durham, of which it is recorded

that each monk had one for himself.

The attractiveness of maple in the Middle Ages for the purpose to

which it was thus put has been variously accounted for. Its suitability

for the operation of the turner, and its beauty when the bowl was made

and polished, have been suggested as explanations which were sufficient.

But it may be permissible to suggest .also that the wood which has

been popularly recognised as "eyed" may have been supposed to be a

nature-made protection against the " Evil" eye. The maple wood which

was in most request on account of its markings was not the most suit-

able wood of the maple tree for the chisel. The maple also was certainly

not in all respects the tree which was most likely from a woodman's

point of view to supply the wood for a bowl of any considerable size, for

it was notorious for the liability of its timber to failure at the centre of

the trunk.

Spenser in the first canto of his feerie Queen has a list of the trees

under the shelter of which he tells us the thankful birds sing in spite of

the tempest, and he ends it with :—

"The fruitfull Olive, and the Platane round,

The carver Holme, the Maple seeldom inward sound."

It has even been surmised that it is to that failure, or to the frequency

of it, that we owe the tradition of the print or boss, which, when it is

present at all, covers the centre of the bowl.

And it will be seen

presently, if it has not indeed been seen already in the preliminary

description of the Mazer under consideration, that the boss is not always

a mere ornament.

The wood here, in conformity with that in all other such vessels, is

perfectly plain as regards its surface, untouched by any inscription or

other carving. There is nothing about it beyond its appearance of great

antiquity to indicate the century to which it belongs, unless it be that

its depth in comparison with its width may afford a clue.

None of the other surviving Scots mazers is early enough in date to

assist in this inquiry; but it has been ascertained in England, that

there, from the earliest times of mazers with metal (usually silver) rims,

down till about 1450, the wood was comparatively deep and the metal

rim round its edge comparatively shallow. Fashion then began to alter

their relative proportions. The wooden part became shallower, and the

Rites of Durham, Siirtees Society, xv. 68, 69.

Page 7

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

223

band became deeper.

From being in the main a protective edging,

the band came in time to be a material portion of the wall of the vessel,

and, incidentally or otherwise, a field for a great increase of ornament.

This form in which the wood was shallow, and the band deep, held

its place for a century, till about 1550, when taste began again to

revert to the deeper bowl with a band which was shallower and

simpler.

Mediaeval Scotland in such matters of fashion usually followed the

example of England, but with so little alacrity as to lag behind at times

by the space of twenty years or so. According to that computation, the

dates between which the shallow bowl and the deep band were in fashion

in Scotland may be said to have been 1470 and 1570.

The bowl in the present case is comparatively deep; and may, on

that account, belong to the long period before 1470, and if so, to the

date of the boss to which it is attached. It might also, of course, be a

product of the second period, if there were no reason to the contrary;

but the mazer band and its inscription, which are about to be con-

sidered, constitute just such a reason. It will be found that they testify

to the existence of the bowl before the advent of the second period,

which took place about 1570 or so.

The experts in old silver are unanimous, I believe, in considering

that the style of the inscription alone places the band in the first part

of the sixteenth century; and their view is corroborated by the nature

and contents of the inscription, inasmuch as it contains the name of

Ninian Bannatyne —presumably the owner of the Mazer, and that he

is described as the son of his father, Robert.

In the history of the

family there was only one laird of the name of Ninian whose father's

name was Robert; and the retours and other family documents in the

possession of his heir of line testify that he succeeded his father in 1522

as a young man and unmarried.

Ninian survived for a number of years, married, and fulfilled various

public offices connected with his county, but the wording of the inscrip-

tion, in which he is thus described merely as the son of his father,

suggests a description of a young man, rather than an old one. The

band thus appears on that account also to belong to the earlier part of

the century.

The bowl must, therefore, belong to some date before 1470, when such

bowls went out of fashion. In that case there is nothing against its

having been made more than a hundred years earlier—about the date

of the boss, soon after the year 1314.

Archcuologia, vol. 1. part i. p. 135; British Museum Guide to Mediaeval Antiquities, 1924,

p. 175.

Page 8

224

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 12, 1931.

2. The Mazer-band.

The mazer-band, as the silver mount round the edge of the bowl is

called, has probably succeeded a narrower baud ; and it is possible that if

the present band were removed, marks of the fastenings of such a rim

might be seen as they are on edge of the cover which is to be mentioned.

The band, which has already been partly described,is 1 inch in depth

inside, arid 1^ inch outside. As is almost invariably the case, it is

plain on the inside, but as is usual, at its date, it is ornamented over

its whole outward surface, the ornament consisting in this case

Fig. 3. BannatyneMazer. Reduced fac-simile of the legend on the band,

divided for convenience into sections.

principally of an inscription in large letters, which has been alluded

to already: NINTAN BANNACHTYN LARD OF THE CAMIS SOUN

TO UMQHIL ROBART BANNACHTIN OF THE CAMISI. The marks

used in the punctuation will be seen in the illustration

(fig. 3).

This is the only Scots mazer which carries an inscription on its

band. The characters used are of a transitional kind, marking the

beginnings of the abandonment of Lombardic and Gothic characters,

and -the renaissance of the Roman. The inscription consists mostly of

capitals of the last-named lettering, somewhat fanciful and uncertain

in style, and with, here and there, a letter of Lombardic or Gothic style,

which the engraver was evidently more at home with. The capital E

at its first occurrence resembles the Hispano-Gothic E (E) reproduced

by Mr E. F. Strange (Manual of Lettering, 1921, p. 43).

As the inscription is engraved in a circle, the punctuation mark printed after CAMISI

might as properly be printed before NINIAN.

Page 9

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

225

The inscription affords incidentally a specimen of the circumstances

in which the confusion between the heavy th, meant to be written in

the form of the "thorn " (J>), derived from the Saxon alphabet, and the

letter y may have arisen.

The word the occurs in the inscription twice. On the first occasion,

it appears as Ij£, which might run a risk of being transliterated by the

use of the modern lower case y and pronounced ye; but close to it is

an indisputable y, in the word Bannachtyn, so the character employed

is not a y. It is thus none other but the J), which stands for the

sound of th.

On the second occasion of the occurrence of the word the, the tail of

the thorn is made, for want of space, to lie horizontally. Thus modified,

(JJ), it might stand for a good capital D. The word meant for the might

there be transliterated as de; and the reading be defended by citations

such as the accepted title of Hoccleve's well-known poem, De Moder of

God, both in its English and Scots versions.

The punctuation marks which occur at four places in the inscription,

and appear to be meant to call attention to words more than to guard

the sense, may be attended to on account of their natures.

Before the word Ninian and after it, is a mullet (%£•). After the next

word Bannachtyn and before Lard [laird] of the Camis is the sacred

monogram — Uf* (:(js in Gothic lower case, the first two letters con-

tracted) ; and between the last-mentioned word "Cam/is" and "soun to

Robart" etc., is a cinquefoil ($*»). This last figure is cut with perhaps as

much trouble, though perhaps not with as much artistic success, as

the cinquefoils in the spandrels on the boss to be noticed on a later

page.

The Monogram, introduced as if it were a pious exclamation, is not

uncommon among the surviving mazers of England of the end of the

fourteenth and end of the fifteenth centuries.

Of the mullet and cinquefoil in the inscription it may be noted that

the mullet was the bearing of the Bannatynes, and that the cinquefoil

was the bearing of the family from which the Bannatynes, it will be

argued, had the bowl by inheritance.

The letter "I," added at the end of Camis on the second occurrence

of that word, is possibly a mere blunder of the engraver;

in these

inscriptions such slips were not unknown. On a mazer belonging to the

Scot. Antiquary, 1898-99, vol. xiii. p. 111.

•

Sir William Hope, Archceologia, vol. 1. part i., 132, 146, 155. On the print of one mazer of

about the year 1500 is the inscription—"robert chalker Ihesus ": Archceologia, 1. i. 162.

But the letter which resembles R in Robert's surname is in reality an H.

VOL. LXV.

Page 10

226

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 12, 1931.

Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, London, the words Ave Naria

occur, instead of Ave Maria;

and the Shirley bowl has Tirnite instead

of Tririite.* The Galloway mazer has mane for name.

Above the flat of the band, which bears the inscription, is a narrow

belt ornamented with a diaper of cross lines ; and below it is a cavetto

containing a close succession of pellets. Below the cavetto again is a

fringe of conventional feather points, which gives the band a scalloped

edge.

Both in details of these sorts, and in the assemblage of them, the

band has points of resemblance to the bands of a number of English

bowls of more or less the same period.

The band of the Rochester

mazer (A.D. 1532-33) now in the British Museum is one of these (fig.4).

Fig. 4. The Rochester Mazer.

The presence of a sixteenth-century band on the Mazer which we

are considering casts no suspicion on the greater antiquity of the

bowl. Additions in aftertimes to bowls of fame and value was well

known.

The mazer cup which belonged to Saint Thomas of Canter-

bury, who died in 1170, appears in an Inventory of 1315 of the plate

belonging to Christchurch Priory there, in probably a much more

glorified state than it was when it was used by the Saint himself. It is

entered as "the cup of Saint Thomas, silver and gilt inside, with a

foot added to it" (cuppa Sancti Thome, intra argent'et deaur'

cum pede

operate).

The venerable Bede's mazer preserved in the Frater-house at Durham

received several notable attentions in aftertimes. While the outside

remained of black maple, "the inside was of silver double-gilt, the edge

finely wrought about with silver and double-gilt; and in the midst of

it the picture of the holy man Saint Bede, sitting as if he had been

Archceologia, 1 . i . (Hope), 160.

. ' " ' ' ' * Ibid.

Argenti et deaurati, Archceologia, l.-i. 176.

Page 11

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

227

writing." It is added in the record that the mazer had "joints of silver

from the edge to the foot,"

a strengthening device which is so late in

its introduction as to be sometimes called in England Elizabethan.

3. The Straps.

The Mazer is distinguished by the remarkable addition of six sub-

stantial as well as ornamental silver straps, which embrace it, and

connect the band and foot to each other. They seem to be of the same

date as the band to which they are attached, belonging thus to some

point of time only a few years at most after 1522. Their occurrence

would have been deemed to be early by Sir William Hope, who pro-

nounced straps to belong in England to the reign of Queen Elizabeth

(1558-1603).

Each strap is a strip of silver plate, £ inch in width and $ inch in

thickness, and scalloped at the edges to repeat the idea of the lower

edge of the band.

Down the middle of the strap is a narrower strip with straight edges

on which again is a still narrower pallet with edges which are counter

embattled.

Each strap is connected at its finals to the band and foot respec-

tively by means of a joint or hinge; and including these it is 4 inches

long.

Straps in any number are uncommon on mazers. None of the other

Scottish mazers possess them. And among the fifty or sixty mazers

existing to-day in England, only three have straps, in two of these cases

four straps, and in one, three.

In the case of one of the first two—the late fifteenth-century mazer

belonging to the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Braziers of

London, the straps are known to have been added in 1579—(Archceologia,

1. i. 172) (fig. 5). The other mazer alluded to is the highly interesting

vessel described and figured in Archceologia, 1. i. 173 (fig. 22), where

it is mentioned as belonging to the Rev.H. F. St John, and dated

A.D. 1585-6.

The cup which has three straps is now in the British Museum as an

item in the Franks' Collection, in the Catalogue of which it is described

as "a small cup of mahogany-like wood, mounted in silver . . . the rim

and foot jointed by three hinged bands with vandyked edges . . .

English, late seventeenth century. . . ."

The mazer of the venerable Bede, which was preserved at Durham,

is recorded, as already said, in the Rites of Durham, to have been

Rites of Durham, Surtees Society, xv. 68, 69, per Archceologia, 1. i. 133-4.

British Museum. Catalogue, p. 4, and PI. vii.,left hand.

Page 12

228

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 12, 1931.

furnished with four joints of silver coming down from the edge to

the foot.

There is reason to believe that mazers with six straps were known

in England at one time. A mazer belonging to Epworth Church,

Lincolnshire, has lately been found to have marks just below the

edge of the band, which indicate that it had at one time six metal

attachments which may have been connected to a "foot." But of

the foot, if there "was one, says the account, no other trace

remains.

Sir William Hope, after considering the two extant examples with

Fig. 5. The Armourers' Mazer.

four straps in England, concludes that it was taste, not their utility,

that accounted for the introduction of these additions.

There seems certainly to be no evidence in the history of the mazer

of the introduction of straps at any very early period. But as there

was a practice of embellishing such of these vessels as had come to be

venerated, as in the cases already cited of the mazers of the venerable

Bede and St Thomas of Canterbury, it is only reasonable to suppose that

a practice also grew as soon as it was requisite of re-enforcing such

of them as were valued, and had come to be frail.

The six straps of the Bannatyne Mazer are doubtless very highly

ornamental, but considering the width of the perforation of the wood

under the boss, and the weight of the boss and the foot, it is difficult to

say that even in 1522, or thereabout—if that is their date—the addition

of these stout supports was not viewed as at least a wise precaution for

the preservation of a bowl which had been in use for two centuries.

Archceologia, vol.1.part i. p. 133.

* Ibid., p. 165.

Page 13

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER

4. The Foot of the Mazer.

The inner rim of the foot, on which the wood of the bowl rests, is

5£ inches in diameter, and from it extends outwards and upwards a

narrow flange of f inch wide, which lies close to the bowl.

The circle on which the foot and the boss join is 5| inches in diameter.

The foot is £ inch deep. Its sides curve outwards slightly to its lower

and outer edge, which ends in a narrow round moulding, and is 6J inches

in diameter. Its whole surface is plain.

In the circumstances it may be thought to belong to the sixteenth

century. I am inclined to think that it, or perhaps more probably an

earlier foot, was originally completed with a floor-plate; and that the

under side of the boss was not meant to be left open to view as it is now.

But it would be difficult to say that any trace of such an attachment is

visible now.

On the other hand, it is quite certain that at no time has any stalk

been added to it, to convert the vessel, as some were converted, into a

"standing mazer," the fashion of cup which was in use later, mainly in

the sixteenth century. It is the only remaining Scots mazer which has

not a stalk.

5. The Boss and its Ornamentation.

The boss, which, as usual, is circular, is larger in diameter than any

other existing boss, plate or "print" known to the books; it is 5| inches

in diameter. It has been seen already that it is an essential part of the

construction of the Mazer, being the sole continuation of the bowl at its

centre to which part the wood does not extend. Near its periphery it is

soldered to the circular edge of the foot, which comes up to meet it. It

is thus impossible to accept the theory that the idea of the boss or

print had been derived from some older fashion in bowls as it was

unnecessary to the Mazer.

It may be of no structural necessity in

the case of any of the English cups or bowls which survive; but these

are a very small minority of the mazers which existed once; and

there are early notices of mazers which indicate that these vessels

were not all identical with each other in respect of that part of them

(fig. 6).

The terminology of the great Inventory of the mazers, 180 or thereby,

which existed in the Refectory of Christ Church Priory, Canterbury, in the

year 1328,infers that, while a number of these vessels had "plates," others

were furnished with something else; for it is not said that they had

"plates " but castones. The word castone, which was correctly deciphered

Archceologia, vol. 1. part i. p. 131.

Page 14

230

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 12, 1931.

first by Sir Wollaston Franks, and which has been found, it is said, only

at Canterbury, was thought by Sir Wollaston to be related to the

French word chaton and to mean a socket. But the Inventory describes

some of these castones as of silvergilt, some even as set with gems. So

Fig. 6. The Bannatyne Mazer : direct view of the boss.

I venture to suggest that, granted the relationship of the words, the

word castone had been transferred in the Canterbury use, from its

meaning of socket to that of the disk or plug which filled the socket—

was socketed. But whether the castone was the socket or the thing

that filled the socket, a breach, artificial or natural, in the continuity of

the wood seems to have been implied.

Mazers were sometimes, apparently, cut from the excrescences

which grow on the maple trunk or branches. These would presumably

be liable to no particular weakness at their centres; but it might be

otherwise with those which had been cut from the round of the tree

Page 15

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

231

with their centres coinciding with the tree centre, which the poet

Spenser so doubted of.

The boss is of silver, and has been heavily gilded.

Its outer

rim is of flat plate -f inch wide^ and

\ inch thick. The rest is cast, and

has been made in two pieces. The first casting appears to consist, if

we judge by its upper side, of two platforms. The larger of these is

a disk, 5 inches in diameter and ^ inch deep. On it lies, about ^ of an

inch higher, a smaller dais somewhat like a double trefoil in outline,

its six foils being nearly complete semicircles, and forming bays which

extend outwards to "within an eighth of an inch of the edge of the disk

Fig. 7. Roger de Quinoy, Constable of Scotland, 1220-64. Counterseal.

which they lie on. In the centre of each of the six bays is a circular

area, f inch in diameter, enclosed within a narrow raised edge. These

will be further mentioned presently.

On the centre of the dais lies the second casting, which represents

a lion couchant, in full relief, his body measuring a fraction under

2 inches in length. The first casting has been cut away where it would

underlie the second, so far as to allow of the soldering of the two

together from the under side. Both castings are excellent in their

workmanship and notably thin. The lion's head is markedly erect;

the fore paws well spread out; the tail gathered up between the hind

legs and flexed over the loins; the eyes are crimson enamel; the

mane closely curled in a style which is somewhat Byzantine, and

similar to the mane of the lion on the counterseal of Roger de Quincy,

Constable of Scotland, A.D. 1220-64 (Laing, Seals, i., pi. xi. 2) (fig. 7). On

the floor of the dais, round the lion and the circles in the bays, is en-

graved a continuous spray of the strawberry plant, with fruit and leaves.

Page 16

232

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANIJABY 12, 1931.

In the six spandrels, between the bays and the edge of the disk on which

they lie, are engraved three heraldic cinquefoils, and, alternately with

them, three wyverns of a medieval type.

The wyverns are dotted over

with small marks as if to indicate ermine. The ground round the spray

and the other figures is covered with a fine matting of flat chasing.

The plate within each of the six circles above mentioned has been

cut out,leaving a circular hole in which to place a disk, f inch in diameter,

for the support of which a thin floor-plate has been added with a small

hole punched in it for the escape of air or superfluous cement on the

introduction of the disk into the little box or caisson thus formed. The

disks, which are enamelled (champleve), have been made separately, before

being set in their places. They contain, each of them, a heater-shaped

shield, of arms which are emblazoned in their heraldic metals and

colours. The shape of the shields, and the drawing and proportions of

their charges, are very excellent in design, and the execution of them

is decisive and regular. As coats of arms, and apart from their art and

present condition, they will have to be adverted to again more particu-

larly, to ascertain what they establish regarding the date of the Mazer.

For the present it may be noted that they are the arms of Stewart,

Menteith, Douglas, Crawford, Walter FitzGilbert (of Hamilton), and a

FitzGilbert cadet; and the plates at p. 244,representing the boss with

the shields reproduced in their colours, so far as it can now be done,

is' referred to. The first five of the shields are of the arms of known

houses, and are probably by far the earliest extant cases that are known

of the occurrence of any of them in their heraldic tinctures. The sixth

is a shield which is known only by its appearance on this vessel.

The enamels, and even the metals with which the shields have been

emblazoned remain in them in very various degrees of preservation.

If the unaided eye can be trusted, everything which should be blue

among the enamels, namely, the chief of Douglas, and the alternate

chequers of the Stewart fess, so far as these last have lasted out at all,

are now black. At the same time it has to be said, however, that the

photographic camera testifies that that "black "is not the same in all lights

with the black which remains in those chequers of the bend of Menteith,

which, according to the history of that shield accepted by the heralds,

were originally meant to be black. There is evidence that the field

The wyverns in the spandrels at the sides of the shields on two of the seals of Robert Bruce,

Earl of Carrick, the father of the King, A.D.1285, figured in Laing, Seals, i. 140; and A.D. 1298,

figured in Astle, Seals, vol. iii.,p. 28, plate xxviii., fig.21, are somewhat similar.—Macdonald,

Scottish Armorial Seals, Nos. 277, 278. Eight monsters of different sorts—wyverns, harpies, etc.,

appear in the spandrels at the lower ends of the shields in a fourteenth-century Norse drinking

horn, which will come to be mentioned presently in respect of its heraldic embellishments, p. 237,

footnote 2.

Page 17

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

233

and stars or mullets of the Douglas shield, -which are heraldically

understood to be of silver, were at one time overlaid with a thin layer

of a more brilliant white metal. Traces of it still remain; perhaps it

is electrum.

For the rest, the gold and red, and perhaps the ermine,

are as they were originally.

The spaces which are within the disks, but not covered by the

shields, are enamelled in dull tints of green or brown. The shield of

Stewart is set in a translucent enamel of a bluish green, through which can

be seen a raised spray on either side, which has small leaves at its top,

and curves round a flower. Mr Edwards, who has called attention to

this, also discerns through the enamel surrounding the Fitz-Gilbert

shield a pattern containing a flower which may be a cinquefoil. But the

enamels were presumably all translucent originally, as the floors of the

compartments on which they were to rest were diapered with patterns

or designs before the enamel was laid on. That this was so can be seen

in the cases of those in which pieces of the enamel have been accident-

ally chipped off. Round the Douglas shield the diaper consists of

short parallel and nearly horizontal lines. Round the Menteith shield

it is lozengy, more or less fess-ivays, each lozenge having a spot in its

centre. At the sides of the Crawford shield it is an ogee line. At

the sides of the cadet coat of FitzGilbert it is a scroll or spray with

leaves at its ends,

seemingly meant for the same strawberry spray

that is engraved on the floor of the boss, so far as it could be repeated

on so miniature a scale.

6. The Cover; its Material and Ornamentation.

The cover consists of a circular plate of bone about 9f inches in

diameter. Professor James Ritchie of Aberdeen, who was good enough

to examine it in the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh at the

beginning of October,

pronounces it to have been "cut from the ramus

of the lower jaw of a sperm whale . . . probably a whale which had

been accidentally stranded on a Scottish or English coast. . . ." "The

under surface of the cover," he says, "is practically the outer surface

of the natural bone, whereas the carving on the upper surface of the

cover has been incised upon the inner surface, which has been rubbed

down, not to a very great extent, to a suitable thinness. The slight

curvature of the cover, which might be mistaken for artificial warping,

is the actual curvature of the sperm jaw, at a place roughly half-

Gold whitened by the addition of an alloy commonly consisting, it is said, of a fourth part of

silver.

Mr Daniel Stewart of Messrs Brook first called our attention to this, which was then scarcely

visible.

October 1930.

Page 18

234

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 12, 1931.

way between the end of the tooth row and the area of articulation

with the skull."

A conclusion that, at the least, the whale was caught in no very

distant sea, and that the cover was not only cut but carved while the

bone was still new, may receive some support from the fact that the

cover, though, roughly speaking, it is circular, is, by strict measure-

ment,

\ of an inch shorter in diameter across the grain of the bone

Fig. 8. The Bannatyne Mazer: upper side of cover.

than it is along it—the measurements being 9^ inches by 9J or

thereby—and that the ten disks which form parts of the pattern

carved on it exhibit, so far as the roughness of the work allows of

any decided opinion, a proportionate distortion in the same direction.

In other words, the natural shrinkage of the bone was not complete

before the carving was begun.

The bone, which has been left of its natural colour, is now somewhat

yellowed by age. It is about fV of an inch in thickness at the centre,

and jjV at the circumference, where it ends with a round edge and a bead

V. of an inch in diameter, on its under side.

For Zoological Note by Professor Ritchie, see below, Appendix, p. 253.

Page 19

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

235

At its centre the cover has a small silver handle consisting of a round

flat-headed knop of \ inch diameter, standing about \ of an inch high

on a neck f

of an inch long, rising out of a small silver plate which

is shaped as a cinquefoil. The plate is If inch in diameter, and stands

on a disk of the same diameter which is marked out on the bone of the

cover as the central spot of the pattern of the carving which covers it.

The stalk of the handle passes through the cover, and is riveted on

Fig. 9. The Bannatyne Mazer: under side of cover.

its under side through two silver plates. These plates lie one on the

top of the other, each shaped in the form of a cinquefoil, the plate

next the bone being 1^ inch in diameter. The plate next the rivet head

of an inch across, and its points are placed on the spaces between

the leaves of the larger plate. In addition, a pin is passed through

each of the leaves of the cinquefoil on the upper side of the cover, and

the corresponding leaves of the larger plate below, and riveted.

If we may judge by the presence of the remains of five or six small

metal pins, sunk in the bone at intervals, each of them at a distance

of about | of an inch from the edge of the bone, thecover has been bound

at one time with a narrow metal rim—presumably of silver. The rim

Page 20

236

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 12, 1931.

has left ho other trace behind it; and the carving, which extends to about

fV of an inch on the edge of the bone, suggests that the outline of the

metal on its upper as well as its under side was plain, and that the rim

itself was in bulk not much more than a mere beading.

The under side of the bone plate is plain. Its upper side is entirely

covered with a design which is circular in its outline, but characterised

mainly by the five-sectional arrangement of its ornamentation within.

A brace of narrow ribs containing between them a continuous'row

of small pellets reaches to the circumference from each of the five

points of the silver cinquefoil at the centre, crossing; on its way, the

middle of a similar brace of ribs with pellets which forms a side of

a pentagon which the circular boundary of the design just clears. Over

each of these intersections of the ribs is a flower somewhat of the

appearance of a marigold, daisy or sunflower, consisting of two con-

centric circles of twelve short petals, with a parterre of seeds (usually

fourteen in number, but in two cases twenty-three) at the centre.

Nearly half-way up from the circumference of the cover to its centre,

each brace of ribs passes under a similar flower.

Each of the ten flowers is placed on a plain disk; the inner five

of the disks taking the place in a smaller pentagon which, in the larger

pentagon, is taken by the outer five sunflowers.

The straight lines of the sides of this smaller pentagon, which are

parallel with those of the larger figure, are formed of a brace of ribs

lying close to each other without pellets between.

These ribs are

continued past the angles of the pentagon so as to form the branches

in a conventional ramification, with angles and curves and interlacings,

and end in leaves which fill the rest of the space. The leaves are

generally somewhat diamond-shaped, and occur usually in sets of four.

Professor Wright Smith has been good enough to look at the orna-

mentation of the cover from the botanist's point of view, and classes

his observations on it under three heads: (1) The silver flower at the

centre. (2) The flower which occurs in the carved pattern on the bone.

(3) The leaf design on the bone.

As to the first, the cinquefoil shape of the silver shield out of

which the knop rises, is in the circumstances to be taken for a mere

repetition of the heraldic cinquefoils of the Mazer to which the cover

belongs; and as the cinquefoil idea has not been extended by the

carver further beyond the knop, it calls for no further botanical refer-

ence in regard of the cover. As to the second head, the flower in the

bone carving, Professor Smith considers that in its resemblance, it

"comes nearest to the 'flower' of a composite, such as marigold, daisy,

or sunflower." As to the third question—the leaf design "fits in best

Page 21

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

237

with the leaf of the helebore or some other member of the buttercup

family." Any positive identification of the carvings with any parti-

cular plants in the natural world is thus not to be insisted on; but

the Society will be glad to read for itself the Professor's very learned

letter.

The excellence of the design on the cover and the high order of its

workmanship are remarkable. The date of the work,however, is difficult

to determine. There is nothing about it to suggest that it is not as

early as the fourteenth century. It might even be earlier. But the

position on it of the cinquefoil, which is a significant decoration of

the mazer-boss, and is here the decoration of the handle, lends strength

to the presumption that it and the Mazer were made for the same

master. I have not been fortunate enough yet to discover any carving

in the museums or elsewhere which appears to be sufficiently related

to the design here elaborated, either in general idea or in detail, to

assist us to any further conclusion regarding it.

7. The Heraldry of the Boss, and its Testimony to the

Date of the Vessel.

The heraldry of the Mazer, already noticed incidentally, has now

to be examined as to its details, in order to ascertain what light if

any the shields which compose it, arranged as they are in it, may be

found to throw upon the history of the vessel, its date, the part of

the country to which it specially belonged, and, by further inference,

perhaps the very table and the company for which it was made.

The credit of the shields themselves appears to be well established

when the object for which they were made, and placed where we find

them, is realised. The object was the decoration of a convivial bowl

of the kind that was circulated round the table and drunk out of by

each of the company as it passed.

The shields were thus meant to be

For Botanical Note by Professor W. Wright Smith, King's Botanist, see below, Appen-

dix, p. 254.

A similar armorial decoration of much delicacy of execution is seen on a convivial drinking

horn, considered to have been made in the same fourteenth century, and to have belonged to an

aristocratic guild in Norway. Round the mouth of the horn is a deep silver band on which are

the shields of the "five greatest houses, royal and baronial, in Norway," and with them the

shields of three houses belonging to Orkney.—"An Old Norse Drinking Horn," by J. Storer

Clouston (Proceedings of the Orcadian Antiquarian Society, vol. viii. session 1929-1930, pages

57-62).

I and one or two others have thought that the design of the decoration found on the boss

was too exalted to have been meant for the ornamentation of the bottom of a bowl, but had

been intended for the embellishment of the cover of a chalice of some sort: but I, for my part,

have relinquished that idea in face of arguments against it which, I consider, are not to be

withstood. It may well be that no surviving mazer possesses a centrepiece of such distinction :

but it would be difficult to say after a study of the literature of the subject, that any theme

was too high or any design too ambitious to be meant for employment on a mazer boss.

Page 22

238

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 12, 1931.

seen by all,and also read by all; for, at the period to which the bowl

belonged, heraldry was a living language, understood by all. The shields,

in addition, as we have seen, were (allbut one of them—and his

presence will, perhaps, be thought to be accounted for)the shields of

famous Scottish houses; and when it is remembered that they appear

as the ornament of a vessel for a festive board, it must be assumed that

when they were placed there they were not mere mementos of the dead,

whose memories were to be honoured in solemn silence, but as the

ensigns of the living—of the members of a circle of friends or allies,

perhaps the feudal superior and his vassals, personages who might

actually feast together, so that the bearers of the arms on the bowl

might perchance drink out of the bowl themselves. In this view the

shields of the boss were contemporary statements of facts, and their

occurrence on it was as good as -a, contemporary publication of them.

The facts too of personal bearings in those times were of such importance,

and so near to the honour of the persons whose arms they were, that

any carelessness or liberty taken with these by a friendly hand was out

of the question. The shields before us are thus very excellent evidence

of the accuracy of all the details of their contents.

The theme of the group on the boss is apparent. In the centre is

the lion—in Scotland, in the language of mediaeval symbolism, the King's

beast; and round it in a complete circle are further symbols—the heraldic

shields of six of his faithful vassals belonging to the Stewartry, the

shields being placed with their chiefs toward the lion, so that the lion is

above every one of them—as the Superior acknowledged by every vassal.

In the most favoured and honourable position, if any position in the

circle is so, is the shield of the High Steward. On either side of it are

the shield of Menteith the Lord of Arran, and the shield of the Douglas.

The other three are the shield of Crawford, the shield of FitzGilbert

progenitor of the house of Hamilton, and next to it the shield of another

FitzGilbert, presumably, as we may see, a brother of the last, and the

possessor of some title yet to .be determined, to sit at.table with the

Steward, and the Steward's other'vassals.

But though at first sight the position of the Steward's shield might

be thought to indicate that he was the owner of the Mazer, further

observation of the boss finds marks on it which alter the conclusion

to this, that the Steward had his position in the circle not as mere lord

of the Mazer but as the lord of the owner of the vessel. The ornamen-

tation of the bowl, specially of its boss, contains emblems which favour

the view that its first deviser and owner was a FitzGilbert, and it may

be that he having the designing of the boss, and the disposing of the

shields, placed his own shield not first, but last, and that, on account

Page 23

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

239

of some peculiarity in his position. It will be convenient, however, to

defer the consideration of the positive evidence of the ownership of

the Mazer until, by the scrutinising of the shields in the circle generally

we have ascertained what they contribute to the determination of the

date of the vessel; in other words, the date to which its deviser and first

owner must belong.

1. The shield of the High Steward which lies between the lion's

forepaws bears—Or, a fess chequy azure and argent, as has been said.

It has to be noted that it is the shield of the Steward without the

augmentation of the Royal tressure. In other words, it is here as it

was borne by the High Steward from the earliest time at which he bore

a fess as his arms, down till the year 1369,or thereby, when the Royal

tressure first appeared on it.

If the boss is to be dated earlier than 1328,as we may come to think

it is, the Steward whose arms it bears was Walter, one of the great

leaders of the nation in the War of Independence, Regent of the Country

for a time, and,it may be added here, first cousin of that other great

leader, the "Good Sir James " of Douglas. He was the 'same Walter

who married the Princess Marjory, daughter of King Robert I., and was

the father of Robert the Steward who eventually ascended the throne

as King Robert II.

Were the Mazer to be dated after 1328, Walter by that time was

dead, and Robert his son had succeeded to the Stewartry. In 1329, by

the death of Robert I., he became heir presumptive to the throne, but

his arms of Steward do not appear to have received the honourable

augmentation of the Royal tressure till the year 1369, about a year

before the death of David II. and his own accession.

2. The shield on the dexter side of the Steward's escutcheon is the

shield of the famous Douglas.

Of all the arms in Scottish heraldry to-day the shield of Douglas is,

next to the shield of the King himself, the most widely known. The

mark on it, which all—whether heralds or not—recognise first, is

the red heart; for everyone of us knows, or ought to know, the

true story of the loving deed of vassalage performed by the Good

Sir James when, in the year 1330, he took the heart of his dead friend

and master the King, according to the Bruce's dying command, to the

Holy War,then waged in Spain, and how there he fell in the performance

of his heroic part against the enemies of the Cross.

But the shield on the Mazer is the shield of the arms of Douglas

before the day on which the heart was added to them—it is argent, on

Strictly speaking, it is argent and azure.

Page 24

240

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 12, 1931.

a chief azure three stars of the field, and nothing more. These were

the arms of Douglas as they are found on the seal of 1296, of Sir

James's father William "Le Hardi." On William's death, in the follow-

ing year, they descended, according to the law of Heraldry, to his son

Sir James himself. It is remarkable, however, that although the seals of

Sir James's successors establish the fact that the arms were actually

as well as legally his in his time, the appearance of the shield on this

Mazer is the only direct contemporary proof of it now left to us, so far at

least as I have been able to discover.

Owing to Edward I.'s confiscation of his paternal lands in the time

of his father, Sir James had no call to seal charters for many years.

It is true that from 1320, or thereabout onwards, he was in the

possession of extensive territories. Still no seal of his appears to have

been discovered by the students of such things.

Note.

Most writers have been loth to relinquish the preposterous fable of

the command of King Robert that his heart should be taken to- the

Holy Sepulchre at that date—in 1330! But the wording of the Pope's

narrative which he prefixes to his mandate to the Bishop of Moray to

absolve all who had been concerned in the removal of the King's

heart from his body, and out of the Kingdom, from the excommunication

which they had incurred is sufficiently explicit. It narrates that King

Robert had left a dying injunction that his heart should be taken out

of his body and carried to the war against the Saracens—"in bello contra

Sarracenos " (nothing about the Holy Sepulchre), and that, accordingly,

Sir James had taken it to Spain into the war against the said Saracens

according to the King's ivish—"in Ispaniam in bello contra dictos

Sarracenos juxta voluntatem ipsius Regis."

So the whole story of the inflexible Douglas being lured aside into

Spain from the course of his duty is an idle fable. So, also, we may be

sure is the civilian tale of his dramatic act in flinging his precious and

defenceless charge out of his keeping.

That the Douglas shield, however, which has been placed on the

Mazer on the immediate right of the High Steward's is incontestably

placed there as the shield of the Good Sir James, will appear when the

Laing, Birch, Sir William Fraser, Rae-Macdonald, arid so on.

Papal Mandate, 6th August 1331, per Theiner, Vetera Monumenta, 1864, p. 251,No. 498. Gray,

Scalacronica, 1355(Maxwell's Translation), p. 96, is also clear.

Page 25

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

241

Mazer is ascertained, as it will presently be, to have been made not only

before 1330 but well before 1320, and after 1314.

3. The shield on the sinister side of the Steward's bears—or, a bend

chequy sable and argent.

The arms are those of Menteith which were in use by that branch

of the Stewarts shortly after the beginning of the fourteenth century,

or perhaps even earlier. They originated in the line which descended

from Sir John Menteith of Husky and Skipness, younger son of the first

of the Stewart Earls of Menteith, and were probably adopted first by

his son Sir John, Lord of Arran, Skipness and Knapdale. And it is

probably this last-mentioned Sir John who is meant to be represented

by the shield on the Mazer. He was one of the Steward's principal

vassals, and in or about 1321acted as a witness to the Steward's charter

of certain lands in the Isle of Bute in favour of John, the son of Gilbert,

a person who will be noticed anon.

The Lord of Arran's father, Sir John Menteith, the son of the Earl,

had borne, it is agreed, the fess of Stewart with due heraldic differences.'

But he had been implicated in 1305 in the taking of Sir William Wallace;

and, whether on that account or on some other, his sons had altered

their fess to a bend, and changed the blue in it to black, or had these

things done for them. Such, at least, has been the tradition of

the heralds, and it is corroborated by the shield in the Mazer.

Alexander Nisbet, the herald, says of the family: " for proof that they

are Stuarts by blood and Monteiths by name, they carry the Fess chequee

of the Stuart bendways in a Field Or, with a little variation of the

Colour Blue to Black for Difference."

The shield on the Mazer is the

earliest existing exemplification of the tinctures.

The arms on the seal of Sir John's grandson of the same name,

appended to a precept of sasine of 21st May 1343,

consist of the bend

within a Royal tressure; and his cousin, Menteith of Rusky and Carse,

bore the bend chequy, quartered with the arms of Stirling.

The bend chequy alone—that is, before the addition of the honourable

augmentation of the Royal tressure, and before the days of quartered

arms—appears, so far as we know, only twice; and one of the two known

cases is its occurrence on the Mazer which is under the present con-

sideration. The other is its occurrence on the long pointed convex

shield of a recumbent effigy in stone, of a knight in armour, unearthed

Bannatyne Charters, 2.

Macd., S.A.S., Nos. 1950 and 2555, and notes.

Armories, 1718, p. 25.

'Mar Charters, p. 157, 3, per W. Rae Macdonald, MS.

The Charter on the marriage of John of Menteith, and Marjory, daughter and heiress of the

deceased John de Strevylyn, lord of Cars of Stirling, etc., 25th January 1346-7, Great Seal

Register, vol.i., No. 125,and App.2, Nos.1147 and 1192.

VOL. LXV.

Page 26

242

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 12, 1931.

recently from among the ruins on Inchmahome on the Lake of Menteith.

Mr James S. Richardson, who is my informant of this, adds that the

armour of the knight "is in the style pertaining to the end of the

thirteenth century or the commencement of the fourteenth. It is of

chain-mail strengthened at the knees with genouilleres : over the hauberk

is a sleeveless loose -surcoat, confined at the waist by an ornamented

belt and falling in draped folds below the knees. A narrow fillet is

worn on the coif-de-mailles. The shield strap passes over the right

'shoulder, and the shield is carried on the left arm. The sword is held

in the right hand in a vertical position; its quillons are straight and

the pommel is lobated; the blade, which is missing, was of metal. The

scabbard hangs on the warrior's left side, the strap is ornamented. The

effigy has been originally coloured."

4. The shield 011 the sinister side of that of Menteith may be noticed

next, as the remaining shields on the other side are conveniently taken

together and last. It bears Gules, a fess ermine.

These were the arms of Crawford, lord of Loudoun, and Heritable

Sheriff of Ayr. The ermine fess appears on the seal of Sir Reginald in

the year 1296 or thereby.

But the Mazer, again, contains probably the

only contemporaryinstance of the shield in its tinctures, and unquartered,

and without any heraldic difference.

It cannot be said that the date of the extinction of the male line of

the house is known, though one Sir Reginald is known to have been

executed by the English at Carlisle in February 1307-8, and it is known

that the lands and the sheriffdom were in the hands of an heiress

in 1317-8.

Till 1317-8, then, the arms of Sir Reginald were the arms of the house

—although not longer, seeing that Sir Duncan Campbell, on his marriage

with the heiress, Susanna, on or about 4th January 1317-8, retained his

paternal gyronny of eight pieces, and only altered the tinctures of the

gyrons to Gules and ermine?

Up till January 1317-8, therefore, the shield of Crawford was still

a shield of subsisting arms, the arms of Susanna, who,though a woman,

was a powerful vassal of the Steward, the heritable Sheriff of Ayr,

and the possessor of a considerable barony. There is no reason in

Scottish law why the lady of Loudoun's arms should not have been

' Macd., S.A.S., No. 525.

* Great Seal Register, vol. i. p. 38; Nisbet, System, 1722,vol. i. p. 32; see Macd., S.A.8., No. 358,

A.D. 1610. The article in the Scots Peerage on the Earls of Loudoun gives the arms of the last

known Sir Beginald as a fess between three birds (presumably craws) in chief and as many flews

de Us in base; and cites Macd., S.A.S., No. 526. But Macdonald does not identify the bearer of

the arms with Crawford of Loudoun. If he had, the tinctures of the coat of the subsequent

Campbells of Loudoun would have been left without their heraldic explanation.

Page 27

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

243

placed along with those of the other vassals, and no rule of etiquette

imaginable at the court of King Robert, whose mother was the masterful

Countess of Carrick, to prevent the lady of Loudoun herself from, indeed,

forming one of the company at his High Steward's festive board and

drinking out of the Mazer in her turn !

5. The fifth shield bears gules, three cinquefoils ermine.

These, of course, are the arms of the house which afterwards took the

territorial surname de Hamilton, and are the arms which the ducal head

of the house bears for the name to-day.

That house was represented from 1294-5 to a date something short

of 1346 by Walter FitzGilbert, the father of David, who styled himself

on his seal David Fitz Walter, but who was more fully styled Sir David

FitzWalter FitzGilbert. Sir David Avas succeeded by his son of the same

baptism-name who, in 1378, was the first of the house to style himself

by his territorial title alone, David de Hamilton, although Walter had

been described among the lairds of Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire as

" Wauter fiz Gilbert de Hameldone " as early as the Homage Roll of 1296.

Sir David's seal (as sigillum David filii Walter) attached to the Acts

of Parliament of 1371and 1373,

which settled the succession of the Crown

in favour of John Earl of Carrick, bears a shield with three cinquefoils,

and is the earliest known seal of the house; but the shield on the Mazer

belongs to a generation earlier.

Walter, who had signed the Homage Roll in 1296, remained true to his

oath to the English King till the position became impossible. He was

captain of Bothwell Castle under Edward II. up till the eve of the battle

of Bannockburn. But in respect of that decision of 24th June 1314,

and of a column of Bruce's victorious army thereafter sent against

him, he felt obliged to surrender.

It was then that he joined the party

of King Robert.

If, then, the Crawford shield on the Mazer-boss fixes the date of

the making of the vessel at no later than January 1317-8, the shield

of Walter FitzGilbert, also on it, dates its making as no earlier than

the end of the year 1314,or the early part of 1315. And I am not aware

if the date of the making of the vessel can be fixed between narrower

limits, than that it was somewhere within that period of about 3 years.

6. The sixth and last of the shields bears—Gules, a chevron ermine

between three cinquefoils or.

The occurrence of this shield on the Mazer presents a problem of its

own. The arms which it bears are not those of any of the great houses.

Macd., S.A.S3., Nos. 1198 and 1199.

Harbour, The Bruce, S.T.S. ed.,xiii. 11. 408 and 674. Harbour calls the captain of Bothwell

castle "Schir Walter Gilbertstoune."

Page 28

24,4

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 12, 1931.

But, on the other hand, it is the shield of, evidently, a very senior cadet

of the house of FitzGilbert; and it is placed next to the shield of the

head of that house, as if in parade of its kinship. Its field is the same

as that of the chief house. The chevron, its mark of cadency, is ermine,

which is the distinction of the cinquefoils of the house, and the second

tincture of the paternal coat. The tincture of the cinquefoils being in

consequence necessarily changed, is changed to or, the noblest tincture

available. A better coat, heraldically, for a cadet of FitzGilbert could

not have been devised. But the question still remains, Who was this

cadet? I cannot discover that he is known. His arms appear nowhere

except on the Mazer. In default, therefore, of anything better, we must

be content with a surmise. But to what seems to be a reasonable surmise

the Mazer itself gives us considerable assistance.

8. The theory that the Mazer ivas made for John (?) FitzGilbert,

or Gilbertson, Keeper of Rothesay Castle.

Judged by the fact of the appearance of the arms in question on the

Mazer, where all the other arms are the arms of chiefs of the kingdom,

the FitzGilbert cadet whom the unknown shield represents must have

held some exceptional,position in—at the least—the domestic world of

the Mazer, or occupied an equally exceptional position with regard to

the Mazer itself, or both.

The design of the decoration of the Mazer announces that the vessel

was constructed to grace a table in the Stewartry, and, if so, then no

table other than the board of the High Steward himself in Rothesay

Castle; and, even then, it was perhaps only constructed in honour of

some occasion when the King himself was to be present in the Steward's

castle in special state, surrounded by his other vassals of that territory.

But beyond the Steward's shield in its favoured position between the

fore-paws of the lion there is nothing of Stewart in the design. On the

contrary, the boss, on which any indications of the kind should, in the

present case, be looked for, bears allusions to the heraldry and symbolism

of another house—those, in fact, of FitzGilbert. They have been

noticed already: the cinque/oil repeated in the spandrels near the outer

edge of the boss, and the ermine markings on the wyverns which are the

alternating charges there; and, nearer the centre, on the dais round the

lion, the spray of the.strawberry plant, the flower of which was one

of the originals from which the cinquefoil of heraldry was taken. The

position in which the cinquefoil appears- on the cover, as the pattern

of the silver plate in the centre, from the five points of which also,

the five-part division of the pattern of the whole springs, is, if possible,

an even more unequivocal announcement of the heraldry of its owner.

Page 29

Page 30

Page 31

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

245

In addition to these things, there is the recurrence of the strawberry

spray on the disk which contains the shield of the cadet FitzGilbert,

which cannot be taken for less than a notice that the spray on the

floor of the boss is his,an emblem of FitzGilbert, and nothing else.

If then it is, as it appears to be,the case that the Mazer was made for

the table of the High Steward, and was,at the same time, identified

heraldically as the property of one of the family of FitzGilbert, the

explanation must be, that the FitzGilbert of the Mazer occupied an

official position in the Steward's castle which imposed upon him the

duty of furnishing the high table with the utensils of the feast—the

position, which at that time was probably heritable, of Chamberlain

Captain, or Keeper of the Castle, or Bailie of Rothesay or Bute.

The date of the making of the Mazer seems thus to have been some-

where between the end of 1314or beginning of 1315and January 1317-8 ;

but, so far as I am aware, no evidence, except, perchance, that of the

Mazer itself, exists regarding the Steward's household officers between

these dates. Of the fact, however, that one John "son of Gilbert" was

Bailie of Bute in or about 1322-5, there is the testimony of a charter,

computed to belong to that time, by Walter son of Sir John of Menteith,

lord of Arran, to which John the son of Gilbert, bailie of Bute, was a

witness.

This "John son of Gilbert," who, in another charter, is styled

"John son of Gilbert [who"was] the son of Gilbert," was thus Bailie

under Walter the High Steward who was lord of Bute from 1309—a date

which was some years previous to the earliest possible date of the

making of the Mazer, till his death in 1328. He was Bailie too,under

Walter's son Robert, who succeeded his father in that year; and he

is found transacting with the King's Exchequer, in that capacity, and

in nomine camerarii, in 1329.

He was still keeper of the castle when Edward Balliol made his

desperate raid into Scotland in 1332; and as the chroniclers—Wyntoun and

Fordoun—have occasion to relate something of the fortunes of the young

Steward during the period of the Balliol ascendancy, it so happens that

their pages throw some light on the tenure by which the Keeper of the

Steward's castle held his office.

One of Balliol's measures was to declare the High Steward forfeited.

The Steward's lands he awarded to the Strathbolgie Earl of Athol; but the

Not many years ago, in 1897or 8 (?), the Hereditary Keeper of the Palace of Holyrood

House—the Duke of Hamilton, representative, as it happened, of the eldest line of the house of

FitzGilbert—maintained against the Crown that the furnishings of that Palace were presumably

his private property, and on an arbitration was awarded a portion of them.

Charter by Walter, son of Sir John of Menteith, circa 1322, per transumpt dated in 1472.

Lamont Papers, p. 9, No. 14 ; or circa 1325. Ibid., p. 23.

Exchequer Rolls for 1329, vol.i. pp. 184,190 bis, 196.

Page 32

246

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 12, 1931.

control of them he designed to keep for himself. At a Court which he

held at Renfrew, he appointed a Sheriff for Bute and Cowal—Sir Alan de

Lile, with Thomas of Wooler as his lieutenant; and he had the keys of

the Steward's castles of Rothesay and Dunoon delivered up to himself.

There is evidence that he treated Rothesay as he treated other strengths

throughout the country, and "stuffi t" it "with Inglismen."

For when

the men of Bute at last arose and had caught and slain the sheriff in the

open, they were unable to reduce the place, and had to be content with

the Keeper's promise to surrender, which he did to the Steward but not

to them.

When we come to the chroniclers' story of this stout keeper of the

castle, we find that he was none other than John the son of Gilbert, the

same as before—Joannes Gilberti, as Fordoun calls him,"John Gibson,"

as Wyntoun puts it, doubtless finding it more convenient for his rhyme to

say Gibson than FitzGilbert or even Gilbertson.

Wyntoun's story is that when—

. . . the schiref thai- wesslayne

Johun Gibsone in handis wes tane [taken prisoner]

That heycht [engaged] to gif up the casteill

He helde his connande [covenant, trust] wondyr well.

Fordoun's account differs little; he says that Joannes Gilberti was

captured in a conflict before he gave his undertaking; but as for the rest

of the tale he proceeds that it was when the captive was brought to the

Steward that he "immediately delivered up the castle and became his

vassal" : (et sibi fecit hominiutri)?

Wyntoun says nothing about homage; but he relates that Gibson's

custody of the castle was renewed. For when the Steward who had just

regained possession of the Castle of Dunoon learned how things had

fallen out in Bute he came with speed to Rothesay, and made the people

whom he found in charge of it its keepers. He

. . . thar in made

Keparis that it in zemsal [keeping] hade.

In short, John Gibson again retained his fee—namely, his heritable office

of Keeper of Rothesay Castle.

In annotating Wyntoun's account here, the late very learned Mr

F. J. Amours suggested that it was difficult to suppose that there were

not two men of the name of John Gibson then at Rothesay, one of

whom was for Balliol, and the other for the Steward. "This John

Gibson," he says, "who now surrenders the Castle of Rothesay can

hardly be the same who helped the Stewart to escape from Bute."

Wyntoun, vol. vi.

Fordoun and Goodall, vol. ii. p. 316.

Wyntoun (Scot. Text Soc.), vol. i. p. 114; and see vol. vi., Bk. 8, line 4129.

Page 33

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

247

But the Balliol incursion put Gibson, the Keeper of the Steward's

castle, into a predicament in which he had powerful inducements to

change sides, and even more powerful inducements to appear to change

if he preserved his old allegiance in his heart; in other words, to play

two parts, as many others did. If so, there is no need to have two of

the same name then and there; and, indeed, there is scarcely room

for more than one. John Gibson, as we have seen, -was Keeper of the

castle before the Balliol incursion. When Balliol demanded and re-

ceived the castle keys, he got them presumably from the person who

had the legal custody of them,

the Keeper, Gibson; and when we find

a John Gibson in charge of the castle immediately afterwards we

cannot but take it for granted that he was the same man, that he had

done the necessary homage to his new king, and received his keys

back again.

Wyntoun tells how that during the time that the keys were being

given up to Balliol the young Steward was in Rothesay hiding. Mr

Amours thought that he must have escaped before the Balliol

party obtained possession; but the need of cunning to get him away,

which is part of Wyntoun's story, infers that the enemy was already in

possession. The story is that John Gibson was aware of the Steward's

presence, but that the said John—whom he does not distinguish from

any other John of the same name, but speaks of as if he were the

only one—was a "true man"; that he had a confederate, Willok

Heriot, who happened to be dwelling in the barony; and that these

two arranged for the Steward's escape to the safety of the friendly

Castle of Dumbarton. They

" Tretit and wrocht sa wittely

That in an evinnyng in a bait

Fra Rothissay they held thar gait

Till Innerkip,"

on the opposite coast of Renfrewshire, where they landed the Steward

and his charters too. Horses were waiting, and the Steward rode

through the night, accompanied only by his body-servant (his"chalmer

child") and two men with the charters, till they came to a point on

the south bank of the Clyde opposite to the Rock. There they were

met by a little coble, and taken across to Dumbarton Castle, where

the Steward was received with welcome and honour by the captain of

the stronghold, Sir Malcolm Fleming, "the worthy," and John Gibson's

notable service to the house of Stewart was crowned with success.

It was from Dumbarton Castle that the Steward emerged when his

forces were assembled for the recovery of his territories. Wyntoun

Bellenden, Bk. 15, cap. 6, narrates that the keys were produced by the newly appointed

sheriff, which is difficult to imagine.

Page 34

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 12, 1931.

narrates that the Steward's army and fleet had hardly appeared at

Dunoon before that fortress opened its gates to him; and that, when

the Steward learned of the siege of his Castle of Rothesay by his

adherents the men of Bute, and of John's promise of surrender, he

crossed in haste to receive it. The haste may have been to save Gibson

from the fate of the sheriff at the hands of men who could not know

that, though he was the liege man of the Balliol, he was secretly for

the Steward, and had been the planner of the young chief's all-essential

escape from Rothesay to Dumbarton—a thing that could not just then

be talked about. Wyntoxin's judgement at any rate was favourable

to Gibson, that he had kept his trust (hisconnande) well. One version

of the Chronicle has it:

He lielde his connande wondyr weil.

There seems to be no evidence nor likelihood that there was more

than one John Gibson who had a hand in affairs at Rothesay at that

time. But, on the other hand, his success in retaining his position,

firstly on the advent of the Balliol, and again on the return of the

Steward, has only one explanation which is natural, namely, that he

held his office in fee and heritage, and was secure in it according to the

law, whatsoever king might reign, so long as he had the address to offer

that king his allegiance and the king found it convenient to accept it.

The presence, then, of the arms of FitzGilbert, Gilbertson or Gibson,

on the Mazer which was made for the honour of the High Steward,

has the explanation, that at the date of the bowl they were the arms

of the officer who was responsible for the furnishing of the Steward's

table,—though the splendour of the vessel with which he graced it is

to be attributed to a loyalty and enthusiasm which transcended what

was ordinarily required of such a castellan as his feudal duty.

The Mazer with its heraldry of the King's "beast," and the shields

of armorial bearings around it, would be sufficiently accounted for if it

were taken only to symbolise the ideal convivial company in the castle

of the Steward, but it may quite as easily be taken for a celebration

of some famous company that once actually met.

The time of the making of the Mazer, which we have found to be

somewhere soon after the end of 1314,belonged to a period of great

triumphs for the Steward, and of great promise for Rothesay Castle;

the victory at Bannockburn, in which the Steward had held a high

command, had opened a new era,and following on it was the marriage

of the Steward with the Princess Marjory, the heiress to the throne

as she was then, and the home-coming of the bride to Rothesay. If

Page 35

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

249

there was any occasion more likely than another to inspire the castellan

of Rothesay for the furnishing forth of a memorable cup, Royal and

noble, for the Steward's high table, it was then that it arrived. There

is no record of anything that was done there then; but it may be taken

for certain that the King himself was present. He is found there on

occasions both before and afterwards.

In or about the year before his victory, King Robert was present at

Rothesay on an occasion •which may have been important and may not.

For all that is known of it, and the way that anything at all is known

of it is that, during his presence there he was gracious enough to be

a witness to a grant by his host, the High Steward, of a parcel of land

in the island to one of his vassals. The scribe of the charter, accord-

ing to form, engrossed in it the •witnesses' names, and the charter still

exists.

The witnesses were no less than—" Our lord, Sir Robert (Domino

nostro Domino Roberto), the illustrious King of Scots, Sir Edward his

brother, lord of Galloway, Sir Thomas of Ranulph (Domino Thoma

Arnulphi), Earl of Moray, Sir William of Lindesay, Chamberlain of

Scotland, James, lord of Duglas, James of Cuniiigham, James Stewart,

Gillies of Eastwoode et multis aliis."

Though the charter is earlier than the Mazer, it is of interest to us at

present to note that the lands conveyed by it consisted of the threepenny-

land of Kilmacolmoc,

afterwards the property of the Bannatynes, and

that the grantee -was "Gilbert the son of Gilbert" and father of the John

of whom so much has just been said. And, at the same time, that

neither were the lands large enough, nor the grantee, for anything

that is known of him, important enough to be the explanation of the

Bannatyne Charters, No. 1. This charter is undated ; but the designations of some of the

witnesses enable us to assign it a date which is, at least, approximate. The want of the title

"Sir," or the designation of a knight, at the name of James of Douglas arrests attention at once,

as the date of his knighthood is recorded by Barbour to have been that of the Battle of Bannock-

burn or the day before it. The absence of that one title might not be very conclusive, by itself,

that the charter had been granted before the battle; but in the present case it is not alone in

that testimony, for the list contains another name with a designation which properly belongs

to the earlier period. Edward Bruce, the King's brother, who is styled in an unimpeachable

charter of 24th October 1313, Earl of Carrick, is styled here, as he was in a charter of 1st March

1312-3—eight months earlier—merely Lord of Galloway. The charter to Gilbert must, therefore,

be taken to be earlier than the above-mentioned charter of October 1313 (Scots Peerage, vol. ii.

pp. 435-6). On the other hand, Gilbert's grant cannot be as early as 12thApril 1312, as Thomas

Ranulph is styled in it Earl of Moray, which he was not at that date (Scots Peerage, vol. vi. p. 292).

A charter of the Earldom of Carrick in favour of Edward Bruce appears in the first Roll of

Charters under the Great Seal of Robert I., which the late Mr Maitland Thomson dated as of the

period 1315-21. The conclusion must be, that Edward's title and dignity was originally con-

ferred on him by personal investiture, the ceremony of "belting," and that his charter followed

or, at least, was enrolled afterwards.

The feudal return was the service of one archer in the common army of the King of Scots,

and certain attendances at the courts of the barony of Bute.

Page 36

250

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY, 12, 1931.

gathering of personages who were present, who must therefore be

considered, so far as the charter was concerned, to have been only the

Steward's guests who happened to beat the castle at the time.

The next actual record, so far as I have found, of the presence of

great personages at the castle is contained in a further charter by the

Steward, this time in the days of the Mazer, in favour of a Gilbertson

—to John himself: Johanni filio Gilberti filii Gilberti. John, who was

thus a son of the former grantee, received then, about 1320, a larger grant

than his father had had,but in presence of a smaller company. He

received the fivepennyland of Attygar, the fivepennyland of Ardrossigille,

and the pennyland of Cuarfaybeg called Maas Cuarfay.

The witnesses

were "the venerable father in Christ Sir Alan, by the grace of God bishop

of the Sudreys (The Isles), Sir William de Lindsay, rector of the church

of Ayr, Sirs (Dominis) John of Menteith, James, lord of Douglas, and

James of Conyngham, Knights, Walter son of Gilbert, Robert Symple

et aliis."

In our present inquiry, which regards the Mazer and is interested

in the fortunes which it has experienced, such charters are important,

mainly on account of their lists of the personages who were present as

witnesses when the grants were made, and for the reason that these

personages, other than those of them who were resident on the island,

must, in the early days with which we are concerned, have been the

guests for the time of the High Steward, members of the house-party at

Rothesay Castle, who sat at the table which was graced by the Mazer!

On the occasion of each of the Steward's charters just mentioned the

Douglas was present. As for King Robert himself, the only question,

if we could but answer it, is how frequently in his constant passages

through his dominions must he have been there too ? For it was the

castle of his son-in-law and great counsellor, the Steward, and the

home of his grandson. The records show that he was often near,—at

Glasgow, Ruglen, Dumbarton, Cardross, Arran, Ayr,and so on. The

28th July 1324is the only date on which, so far as I know, he is actually

recorded to have been at the castle, during the time of the Mazer.

On the 10thand 13thof June he had been at Glasgow; and on the 1st of

August he was at Scone again. His visit to Rothesay is revealed by

his having granted a charter there.

For the service of an archer in the common army of the King of Scots, and certain attend-

ances at the court of the barony of Bute.

The charter belongs to a date somewhere between 1319and the middle of February 1321;

for, as late as 1319,Sir William de Lindsay would have been designated Chamberlain of Scot-

land ; and Alan the bishop died on loth February 1321,if it was not the February of the year

before (Dowden, Bishops of Scotland, pp. 280-1).

Buchanan House Charters, cited in Itinerary of King Robert the Bruce, by the Marquis

of Bute, 1899 (Scottish Antiquary, vol. xiv.p. 19).

Page 37

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

251

It might seem rather courageous to conclude almost entirely from the

evidence which the Mazer itself supplies, namely, the heraldry which it

bears—the circle of shields of arms round the lion couchant—that it is a

vessel which was actually passed from hand to hand at the table of the

High Steward, and drunk out of, as it passed, by the Bruce himself and

his chief captains and great vassals in the Stewardry, whether lords or

ladies. But for what else was it or could it have been made ?

The date at which the service of the Mazer at Rothesay Castle came

to an end is, perhaps, unknown. Robert the High Steward succeeded to

the throne in February 1370-1.

John Gilbertson was dead before 4th

December of the same 1371,

but how long before, and whether he was

alive at the date of the accession, is perhaps not now ascertainable. Nor

does it appear to be known whether the male line of his branch of

the family died out with him; or when exactly the office which he had

held left it, as, before a date in the next century, it is seen to have

done. There is some evidence, however, that the male line of the family

which John Gilbertson had represented died out early. The Bannatynes

of Kames were in possession of the FitzGilbert lands in the next

century—lands brought to them, according to their tradition, by an

heiress. The Mazer came into their possession very probably at the

same time and in the same way. It certainly was in their possession,

and had been repaired with a new band, and an exceptional number of

silver straps, as a thing of a great sentiment, in or about 1522. It was

natural that the Bannatyne of the day should inscribe his own name

on it, along with his family mullets, but, as has been already observed,

he placed along with them a cinquefoil, presumably for the FitzGilberts.

If the Bannatyne tradition is accepted, it seems probable that it was

when the Mazer passed into the hands of the heiress that it passed

into private life.

APPENDIX.

ON THE PROVENANCE OP THE MAZER. Note by Mr LIONEL A. CBICHTON,

of 22 Old Bond Street, London, 22nd January 1930.

. . . the mounts of the bowl bear no hall or maker's marks of any

description, nor should I expect to find any. They belong to a period

anterior to the use of marks in Scotland, and I believe them to be of

Scottish make.

Great Seal Register, vol. i. p. 392.

Page 38

252

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 12, 1981.

Your criticism of the lettering and its crudity rather strengthens

my opinion of its Scottish origin than otherwise, because had these

mounts been made in England, for instance, the lettering would have

conformed more nearly to the type and workmanship appearing on

known examples of early sixteenth-century mazers.

As to the print, this is undoubtedly of the fourteenth century; and

as to its place of manufacture that can only be conjectured, but I see

no reason why it should not have been made north of the Tweed, as

the design has strong Celtic influence. We know that the art of the

silversmith was practised in Scotland at a very early period.

The bowl is, as you state, of maple.

II-

NOTE ON THE BOSS OP THE MAZER.

By Mr WILLIAM BROOK, P.S.A.Scot., 22nd June 1931.

Firstly, the boss was not specially made for its present position, but,

at one time, either by itself or attached to some other piece, served a

different purpose.

I consider there is ground for believing that at least two workmen of

separate nationalities are responsible for the Mazer as we see it to-day,

but if the boss had been made specially, then, in casting the plate,

proper recesses would have been left for the enamels.

There have

been no such recesses, but there has been within the positions now

occupied by the heraldic arms, some other form of ornament which

it has been necessary to remove.

My own feeling is that the boss originated in the East—in what

country I am not sufficiently expert to say—but it found its way to

Scotland, possibly being brought by some soldier, merchant, or traveller.

Its value was so highly prized, that when a mazer was required for the

kingly purpose you have suggested, it was deemed proper to place it in

the centre, and a Scottish silversmith was employed to render it suitable

for the purpose.

To-day every workman is a specialist only in one branch of his craft,

but in olden times a workman had to do everything, such as engraving,

chasing, soldering, etc., and in some subjects he naturally was more

expert than others.

It was he who was responsible for the removal of the first ornament,

and the substitution of the heraldic shields, and his method, though

ingenious, is clumsily executed.

In each case a hole about the size of a shilling has been cut out

of the ground plate by means of a small flat chisel, and a thinner circle

Page 39

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

253

of silver substituted behind, thus forming a small box. The enamelled

shield was then dropped into this receptacle, and probably secured

in position by means of some form of cement, and,to permit the escape

of superfluous material, a small hole has been drilled in the centre of the

back of the box.

It is impossible to reconcile the crude workmanship of the alteration

with the masterly hands responsible for evolving the Lion Couchant

and the plate on which he rests.

III.

ZOOLOGICAL NOTE ON THE BONE CARVING OF THE MAZER.

By Professor JAMES RITCHIE, D.Sc., Aberdeen.

There are two striking features about the ornamented bone lid of the

Mazer from the zoologist's point of view. The first is its great size, nine

inches in diameter, for it has evidently been carved from a single bone ;

the second is the very fine close texture of the bone itself, which has

enabled a good polish to be obtained. The size precludes any animal

other than a whale, and it is well known that the bones of whales,

especially vertebral centra, the intervertebral discs, and ribs, have been

made use of, in Scotland at any rate, from early historic times. The

majority of these bones, however, exhibit in some part a porous texture

quite different from that of the present example.

The fine "grain " of this bone shows no"concentric arrangement, but

runs in straight lines from one side of the disc to the opposite side, the

only trace of unevenness of texture occurring at one outer margin, where

the bone is very slightly porous.

It is clear that this is not one of the bones of whales generally made

use of, and comparison with many different whale remains in the Royal

Scottish Museum showed that it had undoubtedly been cut from the ramus

of the lower jaw of a sperm whale, the porous portion being near the upper

margin of the jaw bone. The under surface of the lid is practically the

outer surface of the natural bone, whereas the carving on the upper

surface of the lid has been incised upon the inner surface of the jawbone,

which has been rubbed down, though not to a very great extent, to a

suitable thinness. The slight curvature of the lid,which might be mis-

taken for artificial warping, is the actual curvature of the sperm jaw,at

a place roughly half-way between the end of the tooth row and the

area of articulation with the skull.

The question arises as to how the jaw of a sperm whale, a native of

tropical and sub-tropical seas, could be carved in Scotland.

But

although the sperm whale is a southern species, isolated bull sperms

Page 40

254

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 12, 1931.

occur not infrequently in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coasts of Scotland.

Between 1903 and 1913, sixty-six male sperm whales -were captured by

whalers working from Scottish ports, but many were taken far from

land.

Although the Basque whale fishery was at its height in the

twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and in the fourteenth the whalers

are said even to have reached as far as the Newfoundland banks, the

whales they sought were not sperms ; and, in any case, there is no

indication that at that period either English or Scottish boats took

part in whale fishing. The probability, therefore, is that the Mazer lid

was manufactured from the jaw of a sperm whale accidentally stranded

on a Scottish or English coast.

IV.

BOTANICAL NOTE ON THE PLANT REPRESENTED IN THE CARVING

ON THE MAZER LID. By Professor WILLIAM WEIGHT SMITH, M.A.,

King's Botanist in Scotland.

I have examined the figures on the lid with much interest. Three

of these are evidently designed from various parts of a plant or plants.

At first I thought that all three were closely connected, and might be

intended to represent various parts of the same plant. But the central

metal design (somewhat like a series of opening fruits in the photo-

graph) is an illustration of one of the cinquefoils. I could not have

guessed this, but I understand that, from other evidence based on the

record in heraldry, you are clear that it is undoubtedly cinquefoil. This

disposes of one of the items, and also makes it certain that the three

figures are not referable to the same plant—for No. 2 (the flower) is

not that of cinquefoil, nor does No. 3 (the leaf design) fit in with that

plant.

No. 2 (the flower) is girt with a ring which cannot be part of the

flower—unless in the artist's imagination—for there is nothing in the

botanical field quite like that. But inside the ring, the design comes

nearest to the "flower" of a composite, such as marigold, daisy, or

sunflower. It has no resemblance to that of cinquefoil or of straw-

berry.

No. 3 (the leaf design) fits in best with the leaf of the hellebore, or

some other member of the buttercup family. The number of segments

is usually three or four, which runs contrary to any suggestion of

cinquefoil. Just possible, but very unlikely, would be leaves of clover,

or similar trefoil, but the edges of the leaflets are cut too evenly for

these, though the nature of the material may have prevented the artist

from indulging in serrations to the edges.

Page 41

THE BANNATYNE OR BUTE MAZER.

255

Without knowledge of the art of the period, I cannot go further

than the above suggestions, and the likeliest models are—

No. 1. Cinquefoil.

No. 2. Flower of the daisy type.

No. 3. Leaves of hellebore, or close ally.

(EXTRACT from "A Genealogical Account of the Principal Families in Ayr-

shire, more particularly in Cunninghame." By GEORGE ROBBBTSON.

1823.—Vol. i. pp. 60-1.) See above, p. 217,note 3.

"There remains in the possession of Lord Bannatyne an antique bowl,

bound with silver, -which appears to have been the property of Ninian

[Bannachtyne of Kames], there being inscribed in large letters on the

silver binding round its mouth—' Ninian Bannachtyne, Lard of the

Camys, son of Umqule Robert Bannachtyne, Lard of the Camys,' which, as

the precept on his service bears—Robert his father to have died in 1522—

must be now more than 300years old. What was its original destination,

though probably a baptismal cup, is not now known ; but in the bottom

is placed the figure of a lion in brass, sitting erect; and round it, in the

form, of an escutcheon, are placed six coats of arms, neatly blazoned in a

kind of enamel, the two lower, being the arms of the family, on a plain

shield without supporters. On the principle of an escutcheon, representing

the alliances of the family, it is natural to suppose, that of the four upper,

the two on the right represent the paternal arms of Ninian's mother and

grandmother and the two on the left, the arms of their mothers ; under

which view it would appear' that Ninian was the son of Robert, by his

second wife, whose father had borne the name of Douglas, and her

mother that of Crawfurd ; and that Robert had been the son of a former

Ninian, by a lady whose father carried the name of Stuart, and mother

that of Menteith. He was succeeded by his son."

Page 42

256

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, FEBRUARY 9, 1931.

MONDAY, Qth February 1931.

CHARLES E. WHITELAW, I.A., Vice-President,

in the Chair.

A Ballot having been taken, the following were elected Fellows:—

ARCHIBALD CAMBRON, M.A., University Lecturer, Cowan House, George

Square, Edinburgh.

GEORGE CRICHTON, Banker, 6 Duncan Street, Edinburgh.

CYRIL MOZEEN-HUDSON, Welford House, 8 Victoria Avenue, Harrogate,

Yorks.

CHARLES HENRY TAYLOR, Collegehill House, Roslin, Midlothian.

The following Donations to the Museum were intimated and thanks

voted to the Donors:—

(1) By W. DOUGLAS SIMPSON, D.Litt., F.S.A.Scot.

Copper Button, gilt, with a view of the hill of Beriachie, Aberdeenshire,

and the date 1807below in the centre, and BENACHIE CLUB/GAEIOCH

FRIENDLY SOCIETY round the edge.

(2) By GEORGE BEVERIDGE of Vallay.

Small fragment of a plate of a small-toothed Comb of Bone, showing

traces of rust from an iron rivet. Found in the Old Cattlefold, Vallay,

North Uist.

(3) By A. D. LACAILLE, F.S.A.Scot.

Arrow-head of white Flint, with a broad stem, from Paimpol (Cotes

du Nord), France.

(4, 5) By Sir REGINALD MACLEOD OF MACLEOD, K.C.B., F.S.A.Scot.

Two Beakers (fig. 1). The first, of dark brown ware, has a long

upright brim.

The vessel measures 7^? inches in height, 6^ inches

in diameter across the mouth, 5| inches at the neck, 5f inches at bulge,

and 3J inches across the base, the wall being

T5T

inch thick at the rim.

The entire wall, to within If inch of the base, is decorated by rows of

transverse lozenges, formed by a toothed stamp, with three incised lines

at the top and three similar divisional lines at the neck, encircling the

vessel. On the outside of the lip are short incised oblique lines. When

Page 43

DONATIONS TO THE MUSEUM.

257

found the vessel was broken, but nearly all the shards were recovered,

and the urn has been restored.

The second vessel was much broken, and many of the pieces are

wanting. The ware is reddish brown. As restored, the vessel varies

from 1\ to 8 inches in height. It measures 5f inches in diameter at the

mouth, 5£ inches at the neck, 5J inches at the bulge, and 3| inches across

the base. The whole wall has been ornamented, being divided into four

zones by groups of three, six and five incised transverse lines with a

Fig. 1. Beakers from a Cairn at Kraiknish, Skye.

single marginal line at the lip. The upper and lower zones are decorated

with closely set chevrons, and the two central zones by lattice designs,

all impressed with a toothed stamp. Found in a cairn at Kraiknish, Loch

Eynort, Skye. (SeeMan, vol.xxix. p. 165.)

(6) By Mrs FRANCES J. SCOTT, 6 Midmar Avenue, Edinburgh.

Socketed Bronze Axe, the socket being rectangular with rounded

corners, and the sides chamfered at the corners. It measures 3 inches

in length, l^f inch across the cutting edge, and the socket 1

\ inch by

1£| inch externally. Thesocket is encircled bya slight moulding \ inch

below the mouth, and immediately below this are the remains of a loop.

It is covered with a thick brownish-green patina. Found on Craighead

Farm, Newport, Fife.

VOL. LXV.

Page 44

258

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, FEBRUARY 9, 1931.

(7) By ALEXANDER Y. ALLISON, North Gyle.

Food-vessel, light brown in colour, measuring 4£ inches in height,

5| inches in diameter across the mouth, 5f inches at the shoulder, and

T5T

inches across the base. The top of the rim and the upper part of

the wall of the vessel are decorated in false relief by impressions of a

flat-pointed tool, and the lower part by incised vertical zigzags of four

parts. Found in a short cist at North Gyle, Corstorphine, Edinburgh.

(See Proceedings, Ixiii. p. 368.)

(8) By Miss CONSTANCE WABRAND, Balnabeen, Conon Bridge, Ross-

shire, through Maj.-General EGERTON, C.B., F.S.A.Scot.

Two White Metal Buttons of the Culloden Volunteers, bearing a

Golden Eagle, the motto SPEENIT HUMUM and the initials C.V.

(9) By A. RUSSELL LILLIE, Reay House, Inverness, and W. N. Ross,

Park House, Edderton.

Fragment of Food-vessel of dark brown clay (fig. 2). It has had an

almost vertical upper part, with

the shoulder rather wider than

the mouth, which has been 6J

inches in diameter. Under the

rim, which is decorated with

oblique impressions, is a narrow

hollow moulding bearing loop

impressions. The space between

this and the shoulder bears a

transverse zigzag line with four

straight lines above and two

similar lines and a row of short

vertical lines below. On the re-

maining part of lower tapering wall of the vessel is another transverse

zigzag and three straight lines, a short vertical line occurring on each

of the upper angles of the zigzag line. All the impressions have been

made by a twisted cord. Found beside a short cist in a stone circle on

the edge of Cartomie Wood, Edderton, Ross, the place being known as

King's Cairns.

This cist was excavated by Dr Joass about 1866, and described in the

Proceedings, vol. vii.p. 269, but the report is a very fragmentary one,

and the illustration of the piece of the urn found in it unsatisfactory.

Fig. 2. Fragment of Food-vessel from Edderton.

It was announced that the following objects had been purchased for

the Museum:—

Page 45

PURCHASES FOR THE MUSEUM.

259

Merchant's Signet-ring of Silver, with flat hoop and bevelled edges,

the shoulders swelling into a flattened oval bezel. Engraved on the

bezel is a shield with a chevron and initials J.N. (Old English characters),

and above a conventional flag ornament believed to be the badge of

wool-staplers. Found in Perth in 1873.

(See Proceedings, vol. Ix. p. 149.)

Small Luckenbooth Brooch of Gold, in the form of a crowned heart.

The inscription FEAR GOD IN HEART, and the initials A.H.are

engraved on the back.

Barbed and stemmed Arrow-head of brown Flint, another, calcined,

wanting the point, from Strathardle, Perthshire.

Barbed and stemmed Arrow-head of brown Flint, and Knife of

translucent white Flint, from Findhorn, Morayshire.

Leaf-shaped Arrow-head of rose-coloured Flint, from Sands of Forvie,

Aberdeenshire.

Three leaf-shaped Arrow-heads of light grey Flint; lop-sided Arrow-

head of dark brown Flint of fine quality, with very delicate ripple flaking ;

Spear-head or Knife, of dark grey Flint, wanting part of the base; another

of clear grey Flint; three Borers of light grey and red Flint; Knife of

grey Flint, finely flaked over its rounded back; four Knives of yellow

Flint; sub-triangular Implement of grey Flint, imperfect; twenty-seven

Scrapers of grey and yellow Flint; two Worked Flints ; and a Stone Axe,

measuring 2ff inches by 1-j-f inch by J inch. Found on Carsie, Blairgowrie,

Perthshire.

Leaf-shaped Arrow-head of yellow Flint, imperfect, measuring f inch

by | inch; four barbed andstemmed Arrow-heads, of grey andyellow

Flint, measuring f| inch byf inch, yf inch by\^ inch, f- inch by f inch,

imperfect, 1

V inch by 1 inch, imperfect; triangular Arrow-head of dark

grey Flint; and a stone Whorl, measuring 1

T3¥

inch by f inch. From the

Culbin Sands.

Barbed and stemmed Arrow-head of yellow Flint, from Milton Brodie,

Alves, Morayshire.

Pigmy Flint, Tardenoisian, triangle, of grey colour, measuring 1^

inch by

V inch; eighteen Scrapers of grey, yellow and red Flint;

Perforated Stone, measuring 2^ inches by If inch by If inch by

V inch, with hole countersunk from both sides; Lead Whorl measuring

f inch by -^ inch; two stone Whorls, the first ornamented with in-

cised concentric lines and a zigzag pattern, measuring 1 inch by f inch

and 1^ inch by

V inch; Bronze Pin with an imperfect projecting ring

head, the ring corrugated across on the front, measuring 1|£ inch in

length; shield-shaped Hinge of gilded Bronze, measuring If inch by

T3F

inch, and a bronze Toggle, measuring

T9F

inch in length. From Tents

Muir, Fife.

Page 46

260

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, FEBRUARY 9, 1931.

The following Donations to the Library were intimated and thanks

voted to the Donors:—

(1) By EGBERT MURDOCH LAWRANCE, F.S.A.Scot., the Author.

John Rannie, Aberdeen. Aberdeen, 1930.

(2) By ARTHUR J. H. EDWARDS, F.S.A.Scot.

National Museum. The Danish Collection: Prehistoric Period. Guide

for Visitors. Copenhagen, 1908.

(3) By W. G. BLAIKIB MURDOCH, 33 Dundas Street, the Author.

An Introduction to the Study of Scottish Architecture.

I. From the Earliest Times to the Reformation.

II. From the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day, from The

Calcutta Review, November and December 1929, and September

1930.

(4) By W. DOUGLAS SIMPSON, D.LITT., F.S.A.Scot.

The Romance of The Highlands. By Alexander Campbell, F.S.A.Scot.

Aberdeen, 1927.

(5) By JOHN MACKENZIE, F.S.A.Scot.

Archaeological Notes on Ancient Sculpturings on Rocks in Kumaon,

India. By J. H. Rivett-Carnac, Esquire. Calcutta, 1883.

(6) By H.M.GOVERNMENT.

The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland. Third Series. Vol. xii.,

A.D. 1686. Edinburgh, 1930.

(7) By The Hon.HEW HAMILTON DALRYMPLE, F.S.A.Scot.

Memoires of My Lord Drumlangrig's and his brother Lord William's

Travells abroad. From a MS. Book in the Charter Room, Drumlanrig

Castle. Privately printed. Edinburgh, 1931.

It was announced that the following books had been purchased for

the Library:—

Schumacher -Festschrift, zum 70 Geburtstag Karl Schumachers,

14 Oktober 1930. Herausgegeben von der Direktion des Romisch-

Germanischen Zentral-Museums in Mainz. Mainz, 1930.

The Tragedy of Kirk o' Field. By Major-General R. H. Mahon, C.B.,

C.S.I. Cambridge, 1930.

Page 47

A BRONZE AGE CEMETERY NEAR COWDENBEATH, FIFE. 261

The Roman Frontier from Wallsend to Rudchester Burn. (Overprint

from A History of Northumberland, vol. xiii.) Newcastle-upon-Tyne,

1930.

Roman Malton and District. Report No. 2—The Defences. Report

No. 3—The Roman Pottery at Throlam, Holme-on-Spalding Moor, East

Yorkshire. By Philip Corder, M.A.

Acta Archseologica. Vol.i., Fasc. 1 and 2. K0benhagen, 1930.

A History of the Yikings. By T. D. Kendrick, M.A. London, 1930.

Early Man in North-East Yorkshire. By Frank Elgee. Gloucester,

1930.

Numantia. Band II. Die Stadt Numantia. Von Adolf Schulten; and

Band II. Kartell und Plane. Miinchen, 1931.

The following Communications were read:—