Edinburgh, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30 Shandwick Place

The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (http://www.pmsa.org.uk/) set up a National Recording Project in 1997 with the aim of making a survey of public monuments and sculpture in Britain ranging from medieval monuments to the most contemporary works. Information from the Edinburgh project was added to the RCAHMS database in October 2010 and again in 2012.

The PMSA (Public Monuments and Sculpture Association) Edinburgh Sculpture Project has been supported by Eastern Photocolour, Edinburgh College of Art, the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, Historic Scotland, the Hope Scott Trust, The Old Edinburgh Club, the Pilgrim Trust, the RCAHMS, and the Scottish Archive Network.

Portrait bust (facing left) of Prince Albert, in relief, in a roundel surrounded by foliage in a segmental pediment. At the top of the pediment is a shield on which is a lion rampant. The shield is surmounted by a castle and is flanked by thistles. Seated on either side of the pediment is a female figure: a woman with a bust of a girl (on the left) [Sculpture]; a woman holding a book in her left hand (on the right) [Poetry]. Each of the doorway pilasters is also carved with foliage.

The building was erected for the Scottish Heritages Company and completed in the spring of 1877. The company provided a hall within the building, to be used as a picture gallery. This was called the 'Albert Institute of the Fine Arts.'

[At the winter exhibition, opened on 28 November 1877, 'two graceful figures symbolical of "Painting" and "Sculpture" by Mrs D. O. Hill' (1) were shown amongst the sculpture in the gallery.]

Inscriptions : None

Signatures : None visible

Design period : 1876 - 1877

Year of unveiling : 1877

Information from Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA Work Ref : EDIN0193)