VICTORIAN SCOTTISH TIPSTAFF

[Mervyn Mitton]

This Victorian Tipstaff - 10 inches overall (22cm) - is silverplate, with an ebonised Celtic knot as the base handle. The coat-of-arms has not yet been identified, but it is fairly generic with the St. Andrew's Cross and the stag's head. For some reason a stag's head is very common on British armorials - probably because they never stopped hunting them. Tipstaffs for Scotland are not as common as in England.

I try to post tipstaffs and truncheons fairly regularly as they are the original badges of office and go back many centuries. However, you must remember that when researching my book, we found evidence of only some 2000 tipstaffs and about 12000 heraldically decorated truncheons - so, they are not run-of-the-mill items commonly seen.

[Mervyn Mitton]

[Mervyn Mitton]

[Brian Wolfe]

Until you joined the GMIC I had no idea that these existed.

Wait a minute...are you making these?

Seriously, thank you for posting the Tipstaffs they are most interesting.

Regards

Brian