Two rare Scottish George III polychrome decorated leather fire buckets, second half 18th century

Probably General William Henry Kerr, 4th Marquess of Lothian (1710 - 1775)

Newbattle Abbey, Midlothian, Inventory, 1797, p.15, in the Vestible [sic]; 'Eighteen Fire buckets'
Newbattle Abbey, Midlothian, Inventory, 1824, p.11, in the Entrance Hall; 'Eighteen Leather water buckets'
Newbattle Abbey, Midlothian, Inventory, 1826, in the Entrance Hall; '18 Water buckets'
Newbattle Abbey, Midlothian, Inventory, 1901, p.81, in the Outer Hall; ‘10 old leather pails with crests'

These fire buckets closely relate to a pair formerly in the collection of John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquis of Bute and 7th Earl of Dumfries. Illustrated in the Christie's sale catalogue, Dumfries House, Vol. I, 12 July 2007, lot 108.

Polychrome decorated leather vessels can be found in numerous noble collections throughout England and Scotland. Oliver Baker illustrates an heraldic polychrome decorated leather Jack. (Oliver Baker, Black Jacks and Leather Bottells, Stratford-Upon-Avone, 1921, p. 65, pl. 10).