These are the front and rear of a pair of cufflinks which I were my father’s - he studied medicine at Glagow University in the late 1940’s. The Hallmark indicates 1948 which make perfect sense. The Makers Mark appears to be DCR but David Crichton Rait was working about 100 years earlier (and coincidentally appears several genarations back in my mother’s family tree - I have have some Gothic revival spoons of his.) Can anyone enlighten me?
The hallmark date is actually 1896. At that time Rait’s successor company, D C Rait & Sons, was still in business. Although I have seen their mark as DCR&S on silver it is not impossible that they were still using the plain DCR mark.
Phil
Phil many thanks for the explanation. The difference between the two date letters Z is not great, and 1948 made sense to me. I guess my grandfather bought them second hand! Alastair
Not only is the maker a Rait but the engraving on the links is the anchor and motto of the Rait family Rait coat of arms:
See Alexander Nisbet’s “A system of Heraldry” published in 1722. He writes:
The surname of Rait or Rhet, or, a cross ingrailed sable. The first of this name is said to be a German, from the country of Rhetia, from whence the name; and, it is said, to have come to Scotland in the reign of Malcolm IV. and from that king got some lands in the shire of Nairn, which he called after his own name.
In the reign of John Baliol, mention is made by our historians of Sir Gervis Rait of that Ilk. In the reign of Robert III. Sir Alexander Rait of that Ilk, having killed the Thane of Calder, fled to the Merns, and lived under the protection of the Earl Marischal ; his son, Mark Rait, married - Dunnet, heiress of Halgreen, and got with her these lands. David Rait of Halgreen and Drumnagar gets a charter from King James III. of these lands, of whom were descended the Raits, lairds of Halgreen; who carried as above, for crest, an anchor, proper; motto, Spero meliora. Lyon Register.
Mr William Rait of Pitforthie, descended of a second son of Halgreen, or, on a cross ingrailed sable, a hunting-horn of the first, stringed gules; crest, an anchor, proper, ensigned on the top, with a crescent argent: motto, Meliora spero sequorque. Lyon Register.
You probably know all this but I didn’t and incidentally, if accurate, it gets that wretched McBeth and his nutjob wife of the hook regarding the Thane of Cawdor whose title he took after the previous thane was given the chop for upsetting king Duncan. More Tudor propaganda by Bill Shakespeare disposed of once and for all, according to Nisbet back in 1722 and that is 300 years with no denial issued or retraction demanded.
The current Thane is still around should you feel the urge to give him a bell and update him. The current 7th Earl Cawdor, of Clan Campbell of Cawdor, is the 25th Thane of Cawdor. He and his wife and children can be found at Drynachan Lodge, an eight-bedroom hunting lodge by the River Findhorn south of Inverness.
Things haven’t been easy for him either. Back in 2001, Lord Cawdor clashed with his stepmother, Angelika Campbell, Countess Cawdor, when she tried to have him evicted from the castle, so that she could continue to occupy it.
You’d think with 50,000 acres the two of them could have sorted something out without the drama.
CRWW
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