Century-old coat finds a new home at museum
Vintage garment donated
A century-old coat stored in a house in Bridge of Allan is set to be given a new lease of life within the National Museum of Scotland.
Frances Hamilton decided it was time to find a new home for the garment, a black velvet Jenners label piece thought to date back as far as World War I, and offered it to the museum.
It belonged to Frances’ great-grandmother, Janet Ann Crombie (nee Carse), who was born in Dysart in Fife in 1852 and lived until the grand age of 91.
Janet’s husband George — with whom she had four children — was a mariner, then a shop-owner and businessman who died in 1890 at the age of just 41.
After his death, Janet is believed to have continued to run the family business and in the early 1900s lived with her two unmarried daughters in Kirkcaldy for several years.
Frances believes the Jenners connection is possibly through her daughter Isabella Carse Law (née Crombie) who lived at Stanley (Perthshire) until around 1935, when she and her husband (John Law) moved to Corstorphine on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
Frances said: “The coat is full length with masses of ribbon detail on the hem, front, cuffs and collar. The museum unofficially dates the coat to WW1 but are going to do more research and will hopefully find a reference in Jenners archive.
“It was always in a cupboard in my home in Edinburgh as I was growing up. I never saw anyone wear it. It was there and rediscovered every now and then.
“When my mother died in 2002 and her Edinburgh house was sold and the contents dispersed, the coat seemed to automatically come to me, given I have an interest in clothes and art history.
“We also gave a home to two old portraits found in a cupboard under the stairs and put them on a wall, discovering only now that the lady in one of the portraits was the owner of the coat, my great grandmother.”
Frances is preparing to leave her home at Westerton House in Bridge of Allan later this year and the coat resurfaced.
“I decided to offer it to the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh as it is a glorious thing and has the Jenners label. They said ‘yes please’.
“Handing it over feels very odd, the end of an era. I have a feeling my great grandmother was a rather feisty lady.
“But it will be good to know the coat will be so well looked after and hopefully create interest.”