A rare silver pendant badge made for a member of the world’s first curling club in Edinburgh over 200 years ago fetched nearly £900 at auction.
The badge or medal was among those created in 1802 for members of the Duddingston Curling Society “to distinguish members from any other gentleman”.
The first of its kind in the world, it showed curlers playing on Duddingston Loch in front of the kirk and the club’s motto, “Sic Scoti: Alii non Aeque felices”, meaning “This is the way the Scots play: Others are not so lucky”,
The oval-shaped badge, still in “very fine” condition, went under the hammer at Noonans auctioneers in London, where it was bought by a collector from Glasgow for £875.
Peter Preston-Morley, of Noonans, said: “Duddingston Curling was a very prestigious society. I am not aware of another of these medals coming up at auction so to see it return to Scotland was very pleasing.”
The Duddingston Curling Society was founded in 1795 – the same year Sir Henry Raeburn painted The Skating Minister at the same location — to play Scotland’s then national sport.
In 1802 it was decided to have “a medal with proper insignia” as a badge to distinguish its members from other players.
The badge was part of the ten shillings and sixpence entry fee to the Society, and only those presented with one were entitled to use the Society’s curling stones.
Members – including the famous author James Hogg, the “Ettrick Shepherd” – had to wear their badge on the ice, and could be fined one shilling if they did not wear it to the club’s anniversary dinner.
The Society became highly influential, laying down the earliest surviving rules of curling in 1804 to avoid disputes among players, and contributing to their standardisation.
Minutes from an early meeting in January 1795 read: “The inhabitants of the small Parish of Duddingston, have long been famed for their attachment to the manly exercise of curling; this was greatly promoted by their having a large loch, conveniently situated; and near to the metropolis.”
The Society ran until 1854.
