The Curious Case of Scott’s Snuff Box
August 2025
A Club Heirloom Rediscovered
In the course of digitising over 5,000 pages of the Club’s archival material I stumbled upon the intriguing trail of a small but significant item: a snuff box once owned by Sir Walter Scott himself.
The references were scattered but compelling. At the Club’s 1972 Annual Dinner, the actor and biographer Robert Speaight mentions a personal gift of a Snuff Box from Lady Rostrevor-Hamilton bearing the following inscription:
“To John Gibson, W.S. from Sir Walter Scott Bart, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1832.”
This was no ordinary artefact. John Gibson, Scott’s trusted solicitor and close friend, was the recipient of the box in the final year of Scott’s life. For Speaight, who was deeply engaged in the literary legacy of Scott, this heirloom carried immense symbolic weight. In his Presidential Address Speaight announced his intention to leave the snuff box to the Club, in honour of the occasion and the legacy it represented.
The 1979 Annual Bulletin continues the tale:
“The Chairman referred to the Presidential Address in 1972 by the late Robert Speaight in which he had announced that he proposed to leave to the club a snuff box which had belonged to Sir Walter Scott and which he had presented to John Gibson, Writer to the Signet, in 1832 only a few months before his death. It had come down as an heirloom to Robert Speaight who wished to leave it to the Club as a mark of the honour done to him that evening. Following upon his death, his son announced that Mrs Maxwell Scott had accepted it for permanent display at Abbotsford, subject only to its appearance once a year at the Annual Dinner.”
Then, as far as our records go, the trail goes cold. The snuff box disappears from Club documentation—no mention of its annual appearance at dinners, no photographic record, no further notes of its custody.
Until now.
A Chance Rediscovery
In 2025, while following up on the story, I wrote to the collections team at Abbotsford Trust to enquire whether any snuff box matching the description might be held there. Claudia Bolling, House and Collections Manager, replied warmly—but with unexpected news.
Yes, Abbotsford does indeed have a snuff box on display matching the exact inscription described above.
However, their records listed the item as having been donated in 2016—not by the Scott Club, but by the law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn. Digging further, Claudia discovered that the box had been found among the personal effects of the late Ivor Guild, a former partner at the firm and a member of the New Club in Edinburgh. The solicitor overseeing the donation assumed the item belonged to Guild himself.
So how did this Club heirloom, accepted for permanent display at Abbotsford almost 40 years earlier, come to be rediscovered in a solicitor’s office?
Unravelling the Mystery
We can only speculate, but three possibilities seem plausible:
- Two Identical Snuff Boxes?
This was considered, but quickly ruled out—the inscription is identical, and it would be highly unlikely for two boxes with the same engraving and provenance to exist. - A Club Member Custodian?
Could Ivor Guild have been entrusted with the box on behalf of the Scott Club, perhaps storing it at the New Club between annual dinners? I’m currently exploring whether Guild had any association with our Club. A few of our long-standing members from the period are still with us, and may be able to shed light. - An Informal Transfer Gone Astray?
More likely is that, despite Speaight’s clear wishes and Mrs Maxwell Scott’s acceptance, the actual transfer of title or custodianship may have never been formally documented. Somewhere in that grey area of honourable intentions and informal arrangements, the box seems to have passed into private hands—until it was eventually returned to Abbotsford, albeit without awareness of its backstory.
What Happens Next?
The Abbotsford Trust, quite rightly, adheres to museum standards regarding donations, loans, and provenance. When the snuff box was formally accepted into their collection in 2016, a title transfer would usually have been signed. But in this case, it’s not clear whether the donor had the legal authority to do so.
Claudia and her team have expressed a wish to clarify the box’s full history and ensure it is documented correctly. They’ve asked whether the Club wishes to retain ownership or would be willing to formally cede title.
Regardless of ownership, it is crucial that the remarkable journey of this little object be recorded properly—so that future curators, researchers, and Club members understand its layered past.
A Box Full of Stories
In the end, the snuff box has turned out to be more than just a historical artefact. It’s a thread that connects Scott to Gibson, Gibson to Speaight, Speaight to the Club, and the Club back to Abbotsford—each link revealing something about how we remember, preserve, and sometimes lose sight of the past.
Thanks to both the diligence of Abbotsford’s staff and the richness of the Club’s own archive, we now have a fuller picture of its journey. There are still questions to answer—but also an opportunity to ensure that the next chapter in its story is properly documented.
