About R.L. Christie
History of the business
R.L. Christie has one of the longest established names in silver and jewellery within Scotland.
1821
Founded in the heart of Edinburgh in 1821 by John McKenzie as a jewellers and hardware merchants, the company subsequently passed to his daughter and her husband, Robert Livingstone Christie.
1853
In 1853, the couple rebranded the business as ‘R.L. Christie Jeweller & Watchmaker’ and moved their gallery and workshop to 17-20 Bank Street, just off Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile.
circa 2000s
Since the Victorian era the company has continued to grow, developing silverware alongside jewellery and watches, becoming a familiar Edinburgh name that continued at its Bank Street premises until the early 2000s.
Today
Today, the company is still run from Scotland’s capital city and maintains a focus on quality antique and vintage silver and jewellery.
Connection to the silver world
Lyndsay MᶜGill manages the running of R.L. Christie and has twenty years’ experience working as a curator in museums and heritage in Scotland.
She is now applying this institutionally gained knowledge to objects within the commercial world. This brings a unique experience to the business and provides R.L. Christie with a strong understanding of the historical and cultural environment that our pieces have been created in.
Lyndsay specialises in Scottish items from the Renaissance to the Modern period with a particular focus on silver and jewellery. Her three university degrees in Archaeology, Museum & Gallery Studies and Scottish Heritage have provided an important background with which to understand objects.
She has also published on Scottish Renaissance jewels, luckenbooth brooches, quaichs and Scottish goldsmiths, and in 2023 she curated her final exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland, Uniquely Scottish Silver.
Selected publications:
(2024) ‘Scottish Renaissance Jewels in the National Collection’. In Groundwater, A. (ed.) Decoding the Jewels: Renaissance Jewellery in Scotland. Leiden: Sidestone Press, 105-127
(2022) ‘Scottish heart brooches: a re-evaluation of the luckenbooth’. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 151, 223-234
(2021) ‘Cup of Kindness: from monarchy to miners and marriage too’. The Keeper: The Magazine of the Keepers of the Quaich, summer ed., 20-23
(2020) ‘Identification of an early Order of the Thistle badge’. Journal of the Orders and Medals Research Society, Dec.
(2018) 'Andrew Purdoune of Glasgow, Scotland’s first clockmaker?’. Clock Magazine, May, 26-31
(2017) ‘Knights of the Thistle: A Quest for Loyalty and Identity’. In Forsyth D. (ed) Bonnie Prince Charlie & the Jacobites. Edinburgh: NMS Enterprises, 43-57
(2016-17 ) ‘Alexander Crichton, a Scottish Silversmith and the Sailing Marquess’. Journal of the Silver Society, No.33, 73-80
Colin T. Fraser is one of the country’s foremost experts on Scottish silver.
As the former Head of Silver & Jewellery at an esteemed Edinburgh based international auction house, he has cultivated a rich repository of knowledge and experience including subject specialist research, cataloguing and professional valuations.
His distinguished role also involves providing expert consultancy services to a diverse array of collectors and institutions. Colin has contributed to the corpus of literature on Scottish silver through several book chapters and articles further enhancing the knowledge within this field of study.
Selected publications:
(2016) Contributor. The Sgian Dubh: A collection by Malcolm Ferris-Lay. United Kingdom: Malcolm Ferris-Lay
(2012) Silver: the Aberdeen Story. Aberdeen: Aberdeen City Council. Chapters: ‘The Aberdeen Grammar School Arrow and Medals’, ‘Aberdeen Style’, ‘Boxes’ and ‘Building a Collection’
(2012) Contributor. The Tain Silver Collection. Tain: Tain & District Museum Trust
(2008) Silver Made in Scotland, Dalgleish G., & Fothringham, H.S. (eds.). Edinburgh: NMSE – Publishing. Chapters: ‘Making their Mark: Burgh Silver’ and ‘Fashioned in Silver’