Object Description
This set of 12 crested George II Scottish silver pistol handled dinner knives were made in Edinburgh C1740 and measure 10.5 inches in length, they have a scrolled terminal to the handles and scimitar shaped steel blades – some with cutlers marks – and they are crested to match the set of dinner forks in our other listings with a cockerel and the motto VIRTUTE ET LABORE above and some are marked with the town mark of Edinburgh and a couple have partial makers marks, they are in excellent condition for knives of this age with no splits or holes, a lovely set of very useable knives.
The Crest of the Family of Rigg
The crest as engraved upon this Rare Set of Twelve George II Scottish Sterling Silver
Pistol Handled Dinner Knives by an unknown silversmith made in Edinburgh circa
1740 is that of the family of Rigg. It may be blazoned as follows:
Crest: A cock sable beaked and armed gules
Motto: Virtute et labore [By valour and exertion]
Given the evidence of the crest as engraved upon the handles of these knives they
were at one time in the possession of the family of Rigg of Dounfield1
in the Parish of
Kettle in the County of Fife. The date of manufacture of these knives allows the
leading candidate for their ownership to be James Rigg of Dounfield and Nether
Tarvit (born 1707) who married Anne Moncreiff, the daughter of (……?) Moncreiff
of Reidie in the County of Fife in 1736. James was the son of John Rigg of Dounfield
and his wife, Catherine Duncan of Ardownie in the County of Angus. James was by
profession a Doctor of Medicine. James’s grandfather, William Dounfield of
Dounfield (died 1740) had a charter of the lands of Dounfield in 1720 and was
described as a chirugeon (surgeon) apothecary in Cupar in the same county. James
also acquired by charter the lands of Nether Travit and other lands. Both he and his
1 Also often spelt as ‘Downfield’.
wife, Anne had a son named Patrick who was born in 1739. The family later lived at
Tarvit House, Cupar aforesaid.
The family descend from Hugh Rigg of Carberry in the County of Midlothian who
died before 1577.