Tapestries go in mansion raid

Crooks steal priceless works of art

Three priceless tapestries were stolen from a mansion at Port of Menteith, the Observer of December, 1949 reported.

The works of art were handed down from Mary Queen of Scots through generations of the Scott-Moncrieff family of Dowanhill, Perthshire.

They were ripped from their frames and removed from the dining room of the mansion-house of Mr and Mrs Robert King, Arntomy.

Although the tapestries were valued at £2000, almost £70,000 in today’s money, they were considered priceless, said the Observer.

Two of the tapestries measured seven feet by two feet while the third was six feet by two feet.

They told – in ‘delicate petit-point’ – the story of Rehoboam, son of King Solomon, and his conflict with Jeroboam. Each of the figures depicted was in Elizabethan costume, the dress of the period in which they were sewn.

Other items stolen during the raid were a diamond tiara, two diamond brooches, silver spoons, forks and a sum of money.

The thieves also left behind a trail of damage – smashing windows, leaving holes in doors and overturning furniture in four rooms.

According to the Observer, the damage to the property was so great that Mr and Mrs King had moved to the Lake of Menteith Hotel.

Mrs King was a member of the Scott-Moncrieff family. Apart from occasional appearances at exhibitions, the tapestries had hung at Arntomy since Mr and Mrs King moved there 27 years earlier. Perthshire Police were investigating the ‘audacious vandalism and theft’, said the Observer.

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The Observer of late 1949, also reported the death of a 33-year-old Kippen man in a tractor tragedy. Mr Hugh Gray McDowall, 33, Laraben

Farm, suffered fatal injuries when his machine overturned and plunged 10 feet down a bank and into a burn while on a service road leading to Arnbeg Farm. Mr McDowall was pinned under the nearside rear mudguard and it was thought he was killed instantly as a result of a fractured spine.

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Meanwhile, a sheriff ordered the forfeiture of 169 gallons of petrol belonging to D Miller and Sons (Bannockburn) Ltd, contractors, Quakerfield. At Stirling Sheriff Court, the firm admitted having kept. without authority. the petrol in steel drums in a oil store near their garage. A solicitor on behalf of the firm said its underground storage tank was not big enough to store the petrol delivered to them. It was decided to put the petrol in drums because of the difficulty of sending it back. The sheriff admonished the firm, remarking forfeiture ‘amounted to quite a substantial penalty’.