A “stunning archive” from the family of Treasure Island author Robert Louis Stevenson is to be sold at auction.
The 19th century novelist, who also wrote The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde, was from a family of engineers who pioneered lighthouse design and other civic infrastructure.
On Wednesday, an archive of the family’s personal papers, from the birth of Robert Stevenson in 1772 to the death of D Alan Stevenson in 1971, will be auctioned by Lyon & Turnbull live online in its rare books, manuscripts, maps and photographs sale.
Part of the sale is a letter sent by Robert Louis Stevenson from the yacht The Heron and a posed photograph of him in Samoa, which he sent to his uncle David Stevenson, who designed Edinburgh and Leith’s sewerage system and died in 1886.
The author’s grandfather, Robert Stevenson, invented intermittent flashing lights, and his descendants designed most of Scotland’s lighthouses.
READ MORE: Robert Louis Stevenson's family lighthouses to be turned into art
Also included in the Stevenson Collection, which spans 200 years and four generations, is an illustrated manuscript of designs for signals between the Bell Rock Lighthouse and the Arbroath Signal Tower, the oldest working lighthouse in the UK.
The structure off the coast of Angus was built between 1807 and 1810 into a treacherous sandstone reef, and it is considered Robert Stevenson’s most impressive construction.
The tome – Signals From The Bell Rock Lighthouse To The Arbroath Signal Tower – contains 28 hand-drawn and coloured illustrations detailing the workings of the building’s copper balls and flags, the main method of signalling between the two buildings.
Robert Stevenson also designed infrastructure such as railways and bridges, including Regent Bridge (1814) in Edinburgh.
Three of his sons, Alan, David and Thomas – who was the father of Robert Louis – followed in the family footsteps and designed lighthouses at home and abroad.
D Alan Stevenson was the last of the Stevenson lighthouse engineers, and his collection of rare stamps and atlases is being sold as part of the collection.
The overall estimate for the sale of the Stevenson Collection: 1772-1971 is £45,000-£68,000.
Cathy Marsden, head of books and manuscripts at Lyon & Turnbull’s, said: “This is a stunning archive from a family who made a huge contribution to not only Scottish, but British engineering.
“Designing lighthouses, as you can imagine, was an extremely complex business, given the hazardous locations and the elements they had to withstand.
“This collection gives an insight into some of the finest engineering minds over multiple generations.
“We’ve already had a great deal of interest in the auction and expect competitive and enthusiastic bidding.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here