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Reposted by The Signet Library

Jo Hockey @johockey.bsky.social · 11d

Before and after of this cracker from the Trials Collection at the @signetlibrary.bsky.social

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Reposted by The Signet Library

Jo Hockey @johockey.bsky.social · 10d

And yesterday, this account of the trial of those involved in the Battle of Bonnymuir, during the Radical War of 1820. Part of the spine was detached, so a very satisfying fix!
Part of the Trials Collection at the @signetlibrary.bsky.social

www.maggiecraig.co.uk/2020/04/05/t...

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The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · 20d

A small display of decorative books, maps, manuscripts and photographs for an academic society visiting the Signet Library this afternoon.

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The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · Sep 4

Signet Library graffiti left by craftspeople from the 1850s into the Great War period behind the cases in the Upper Hall. The names and signatures of painters, glaziers and related trades in paint and pencil on the unpainted timber surface.

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The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · Aug 28

Today's bookpost: the final three volumes of Sir John Baker's magisterial Seldon Society edition of the notebooks of the great English lawyer Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634), shown beside a selection of Coke's works from Signet Library collections.

The three blue hardback volumes of Coke's notebooks with the Signet Library's Upper West Library visible beyond.

Coke's 1612 "Book of Entries" alongside three volumes of his Institutes of the Laws of England with engraved portraits of Coke.

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Jo Hockey @johockey.bsky.social · Aug 1

A spotlight on this book on ‘Auld Ayr and some of its Characters’ by the prolific artist Robert Bryden in 1897. Bryden was granted the title of Royal Engraver in 1899. The engravings are such expressive portraits. From the Burghs and Shires Collection at the @signetlibrary.bsky.social

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The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · Jul 25

A progress report on our John Watson's Institution archive project, funded by the fantastic Old Edinburgh Club Jean Guild grants scheme. We are on the hunt for a portrait - can you help?

Old Edinburgh Club @oldedinburghclub.bsky.social · Jul 25

Update on the @signetlibrary.bsky.social Project on the John Watsons archives, funded by an OEC Jean Guild Grant, is on our website. We are also trying to find this painting of Vans Hathorn which used to hang in the school. Anyone know? #johnwatsons #watsons
oldedinburghclub.org.uk/john-watson-...

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The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · Jul 18

Alexander Mill, "Prince of Indexers", assistant librarian at the Signet Library for over sixty years (1873-1935), with his grandson c. 1930. The last here to remember David Laing, Mill's index to Scottish Court of Session Papers is still in constant use, the only one of its kind.

An elderly man sits on a stone wall cradling a young child.

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The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · Jul 11

The Society of Procurators in Perth are celebrating their bicentenary. Writer to the Signet Robert Macduff Duncan tells the story today for Scottish Legal News: www.scottishlegal.com/articles/our...

Our Legal Heritage: Perth lawyers celebrate 200 years of Society of Procurators

Robert Macduff-Duncan WS recalls the two-century-long history of the Society of Procurators and Solicitors in the City and County of Perth. On 8th July 1825, the Society of Procurators in Perth was fo...

www.scottishlegal.com

The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · Jul 11

From the 1934 Revision through to the first few post-colonial years and the merger with Tanganyika, but no earlier unfortunately. (And ironically still found only on an in-house card catalogue)

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Reposted by The Signet Library

Jo Hockey @johockey.bsky.social · Jul 10

This copy of the Scottish Licensing Act of 1903 at the @signetlibrary.bsky.social today, with some very on topic advertising.

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The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · Jul 9

Our upgrade is complete (and we have also resolved issues accessing our catalogue via the new Firefox v.140 and this is now back to normal).

The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · Jul 7

A quick heads-up that our online catalogue will be offline for an upgrade on Wednesday morning (9th July) - all being well, we'll be back by lunchtime.

A screenshot of the front page of the Signet Library's online catalogue.

Reposted by The Signet Library

The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · Jul 7

A quick heads-up that our online catalogue will be offline for an upgrade on Wednesday morning (9th July) - all being well, we'll be back by lunchtime.

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The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · Jul 7

A quick heads-up that our online catalogue will be offline for an upgrade on Wednesday morning (9th July) - all being well, we'll be back by lunchtime.

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The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · Jul 3

To commemorate the 297th birthday of the great Scottish architect Robert Adam, his drawings - amongst his last - for a new Signet Library in Royal Mile premises for the College of Justice in Edinburgh.

The domed and arcaded frontage of Robert Adam's proposed College of Justice, incorporating a new Signet Library.

Diagram of the floorplan and wall elevations of Robert Adam's Signet Library

Elevation of part of Robert Adam's design for new premises for the Signet Library and Advocates Library within the College of Justice, with a rusticated lower level.

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Reposted by The Signet Library

Jo Hockey @johockey.bsky.social · Jun 27

This book of instruction for newly qualified legal clerks in 1727, discovered yesterday by @lixmount.bsky.social at the @signetlibrary.bsky.social has several detailed pages on how to ‘write well’. Anyone who has toiled over a page of Secretary Hand might find it of interest..

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The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · Jun 24

Congratulations to all involved in the superb new Aberdeen Student Law Review, especially to our former WS Summer Scholars Christiana Cameron, Valentina Menendez Ron and Matthew Paton. Lady Dorrian writes that it “demonstrates the strength of legal scholarship and analysis at the University”

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The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · May 30

This may be the only surviving copy of this 1770s proposal for woollen manufacture in Dundee: we can't trace more, and given that this predates jute in Dundee, we wonder if a digital facsimile might be of interest to e.g. the Verdant Works, the universities and city library, the McManus Gallery etc?

Title page of 1777 pamphlet reading A scheme for establishing and carrying on the woollen manufacture in Dundee. Printed by T. Colvill 1777.

Internal pages of a 1777 pamphlet about woollen manufacture in Dundee. The pages are decorated by printer's borders and indented capitals.

The final page of a pamphlet encouraging the establishment of woollen manufacture in Dundee, which ends in saying that printed copies were to be handed out for free and subscriptions to be taken at the shops of James More and Robert Nicoll, booksellers in Dundee. Dated April 28th 1777.

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Jo Hockey @johockey.bsky.social · May 29

Examining application forms of 1836 for entry to the John Watson Institution as part of @kgbaston.bsky.social’s project to document and research the archive of the School held by the @signetlibrary.bsky.social
This form has a letter still attached by a sealing wafer.

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The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · May 23

The return of our historic c. 1820 Regency sofas after restoration and reupholstering. They were originally made by the Chippendale of Scotland, William Trotter, at his manufactury on Canal Street. Photographs by @johockey.bsky.social

Two men carry a sofa upholstered in dark leather up a grand staircase.

Two sofas in a pilastered apartment with a large round table on the carpet between them. Portraits line the walls.

Looking up at a grand staircase under a toplit cupola with a pair of men carrying a large sofa upholstered in dark leather. The walls are panelled and carry pictures.

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The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · May 22

An exhibition of work by photographers Thomas Annan, James Craig Annan and Country Life staff photographer A.E. Henson prior to Professor Godfrey Evans' lecture on Hamilton Palace at the Signet Library last night.

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The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · May 21

Jo Hockey @johockey.bsky.social · May 14

A recent addition to the @signetlibrary.bsky.social Photographic Collection, a box of 10 full size glass plate negatives of Old Penicuik House, environs and family. The house was ruined in a fire in 1899, which dates these images to the previous 20 years (going by the style of clothing).

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The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · May 21

Thanks to this terrific funding we are already some 149 records into the project and learning more and more about the social networks and milieu of the early John Watson's Institution. Much more to come: watch this space.

Old Edinburgh Club @oldedinburghclub.bsky.social · May 20

Another of our Jean Guild Grant awardees this time The Signet Library, researching & cataloguing the children's admission archives of John Watsons Institution for orphaned children, a former school in Belford Rd, Edin. A rich archive full of social history. #edinburghcharityschools. buff.ly/g8Q1eRb

Former building of John Watsons School in Edinburgh, now the National Gallery of Modern Art, Belford Road. source: wikipedia

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Jo Hockey @johockey.bsky.social · Apr 23

A display today at the @signetlibrary.bsky.social by @lixmount.bsky.social featuring Slezer’s views of Edinburgh and Dunotter (the ships!), William Stukeley’s illustration of Avebury, and a dining table-sized map of Glasgow (1842)

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The Signet Library @signetlibrary.bsky.social · Apr 14

A major addition to the WS Society's Heritage Portfolio site today in the shape of @johockey.bsky.social 's essay "Minding Your Beeswax. Seals and Surveillance: The Post Office in the 19th Century" on an extraordinary episode of native espionage: www.wssociety-heritage.co.uk/seals-and-su...

Text reading "Then we learned the method: which was to take an impression of the seal, then carefully to break it, and afterwards, first slightly heating the surface of the wax, to press the counterfeit stamp precisely as it had been done before, so that there was no alteration of position, nor outward appearance of any kind to show that the seal had been tampered with."

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