Unicorns

Staying with the Scottish theme and another national symbol The Art Newspaper has an article previewing the first exhibition to be staged at the new museum which has been created in Perth. This is about the Unicorn as depicted over the centuries in art.

The article has illustrations of several examples of unicorns in heraldry, textiles, jewellery, and illustrations. One item in particular caught my eye, which is the elegant head, ornamented with a Unicorn of the ceremonial White Rod. A precursor of the royal sceptre the White Rod and its bearer was to the historic Scottish Parliament what Black Rod is to the English and eventually UK Parliament. In the wake of the 1707 Union the office of White Rod remained and as an office separate from others eventually came to be vested via the Walker Trustees in the Bishop of Edinburgh as Heritable Usher of the White Rod. Given the different constitutional positions within the realm of the Church of Scotland and of the Episcopalian Church of Scotland there is a delightful irony in this. As the Heritable Usher  the present Bishop of Edinburgh bore the White Rod in the procession at Westminster Abbey at the Coronation last year.

The history of the rod and office are set out by Wikipedia at White Rod. There is a little more about the office in their article at Gentleman Usher

There are several pictures of the White Rod and a bit more about its history in an interesting blog post from last year from the National Museum of Scotland at The Majestic and the Mundane: the material culture of coronations

The Art Newspaper article can be seen at An Upcoming Exhibition in Scotland Is Bringing the Unicorn to Life

 

There are other articles about the exhibition from the Evening Standard which is quite detailed at Tickets on sale for first major exhibition on Scotland’s national animal

and from The National at Scotland's unicorn to take centre stage as Perth Museum's opening exhibition

The exhibition will be open from March 30th to September 22nd.