A medieval seal connecting Robert the Bruce and Dunfermline Abbey is expected to raise six figures at auction this week.
The cokete seal is thought to date back to 1322 when it was commissioned as the mark that would recognise the authority for collecting customs granted to the ancient abbey and Bruce.
Described as “unique and very important”, the item has been given an estimate of £80,000-£120,000 for London-based Timeline Auction, which runs until Friday.
The seal is due to go under the hammer tomorrow afternoon, and is said to be a rare survivor of the mark used by customs officials that would normally be destroyed when obsolete or damaged.
The reverse counterseal carried the legend Robertvs Dei Gracia Rex Scotorvm (Robert, by the Grace of God, King of the Scots).
The seals at auction show signs of cracking at the edges, which would have resulted from the pressure of stamping the beeswax to force it into the design recesses, and one theory is that the seals were discarded when that damage became evident, but before they broke and were not destroyed. They depict St Margaret, the founder and benefactress of the abbey, in robe and crown with sceptre, between shields bearing the lion rampant of Scotland and the arms of Dunfermline Abbey.
They are contained in a velvet-lined wooden box that states they were presented to S. Henderson by Hon W. Ogilvie Cowden’s Muck(h)art 2nd February 1867.
The provenance of the items indicates they were inherited by an Ebenezer Henderson from S. Henderson and were also at one time exhibited in the library of Scotland’s Society of Advocates.
Robert the Bruce had a long-standing connection to Dunfermline Abbey and was buried there beneath what was the then centre of the church, below the high altar and alongside his second wife, Elizabeth de Burgh.
His tomb was rediscovered by workmen in the early 19th Century when they uncovered a sealed vault with a decayed oak coffin, still draped in shreds of gold cloth.
The king’s remains were reburied the following year.